


Five Piece Puzzle

by ThePackWantstheD



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Not Hockey Player(s), Domestic Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Single Parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2018-10-30 01:34:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 39,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10866297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePackWantstheD/pseuds/ThePackWantstheD
Summary: When Alex Ovechkin got the call to come pick his boys up from school, he wasn't exactly surprised to find out it was because they'd gotten into another fight. It was a bit more surprising to find out that they hadn't been fighting for each other, but for a small Swedish transfer student. Even more surprising was the fact that the boy's father was the most beautiful person Alex had ever met.





	1. Say, Who Might You Be?

**Author's Note:**

> Russian and Swedish should be translated if you hover over it!  
> If my translations are off, please let me know!

 

Alex was sitting in his office, looking at the report that the medics had sent him. One of the teams star point guards had taken a nasty fall the day before, his ankle giving out under him when he hit the floor after a dunk. He'd been taken through x-rays immediately after, but Alex was only just now getting the full injury report. It looked like it was a clean break, but it would be a while before he got to walking and Alex's job was to get him through his therapy when he was ready.

Sighing, Alex set the report back down.

Management would leave him alone for a little while, but Alex had no doubt that it would turn into an argument soon. They would want their star back in as soon as possible. Alex was going to have to fight tooth and nail to get him the amount of recovery time he was going to need. Lucky for him, Alex fought tooth-and-nail for his players.

He was about to grab a different file, one for one of the players that were almost ready to come off their injury and who he thought he'd be able to give management in order to stave them off, when his desk phone started ringing.

He reached for it without looking at the number flashing on the display. He wedged it between his shoulder and his ear, reaching for the file he needed as he said, "Hello. Ovechkin speaking."

"Mr. Ovechkin." The woman on the other end was friendly, but her voice was far too familiar.

Alex couldn't stop the groan that left his mouth. "Felicia, no."

There was amusement in her voice when she spoke again, but she didn't outright laugh at him which he appreciated. "I'm sorry to bother you at work, Mr. Ovechkin, but we need you to come in and pick Tom up."

Alex was pretty sure he knew exactly what he was being called in for, so he asked, "Meet with principle too?"

"I'm afraid so," Felicia answered. She was the secretary at his son's school, a young woman using the position to pay for her education so she could become a teacher herself. She was a kind girl and the type of caring person who would make a great teacher eventually, but Alex really wished he didn't see so much of her. He heard her shuffling something around before she answered, "Also, I tried calling the Latta's-"

"They're out of town," Alex interrupted. "An Asian trip, I think."

"I suspected as much," Felicia confessed. "Can you pick Michael up as well?"

"Yes," Alex said, without a moment of hesitation.

Michael's parents were out of town frequently. They were both global business workers. They loved their son, but they had always prioritized their careers. Michael had spent the first couple of years of his life with a nanny that took care of his when his parents were gone, but then he had started elementary school and met Tom. The two boys had been fast friends and before Alex knew what happened there was another boy in his life that he considered a son. Michael stayed with them when his parents were out of town, which meant he spent more days out of the year with them then he did with his parents.

"Thank you," Felicia said. "We'll see you in thirty minutes?"

"Yup," Alex said. Turning away from the file, he pulled open one of his desk drawers so he could grab his wallet and keys. "See you soon, Felicia."

"See you soon, Mr. Ovechkin."

* * *

When Alex walked into the school's front office, he found Tom and Michael sitting on the bench by the front window. There was a boy smaller than either of them, based on his size Alex guessed the kid was a year or two younger than him, which Alex found strange given the boy's penchant for gluing themselves to each other at the hip. On another bench across the room was another boy who was glaring at Alex's, which Alex didn't find that surprising given that ninety percent of the time he was called in here because the boys had gotten into some kind of fight.

Alex hadn't seen the boys since he'd kissed them both goodbye while they slept that morning, Michael's parents still employed his nanny, Piper, for when they were in town and Alex used her when they were out of town to help him with both boys while he was working, so he took a moment to examine both boys to assess the damages.

Tom was wearing dark jeans with long sleeved black shirt and a red and blue plaid tee-shirt over it. The top two buttons on the tee-shirt were undone. It didn't look like Piper had left them undone intentionally, but like something had ripped the buttons out. There was a sharp red mark under his eye, like someone had smacked him there or maybe hit him without very much force. His hair was ruffled, sticking up at all angles like it'd been pulled on.

Michael wore a black sweatshirt that had a green lantern symbol in the middle with green camouflage pants. There was blood on his lip, but it wasn't split open. Alex wasn't sure if that was because the wound had come from Michael accidentally biting it himself or if it was because an eight year old couldn't put enough power in their punch to crack open a lip. He was holding an ice pack against his left eye so Alex assumed he'd taken a hit there.

"Felicia," Alex said, speaking up to draw attention to himself. "I'm here to collect my troublemakers."

She smiled at him from behind her desk. There was no way he'd missed them when he walked into the office, but she gestured towards them with her pen, "They're over there."

Alex looked over at them, actually turning his head towards them instead of glancing at them out of the corner of his eye. "These thugs are my boys? Didn't recognize them."

"Hi, pops," Tom said. He smiled, showing off the gap in his mouth from when one of his front teeth had fallen out a week before.

"Hi, pops," Michael echoed. He tried to smile as well, but it turned into a wince instead. "Oww."

"Don't smile if it hurts," Alex said. He squatted down in front of Michael.

He knew there were people who would judge him for getting in front of Michael when Tom was right there, but as far as Alex was concerned both boys were his sons. If Michael was in pain, then he was going to look at Michael closer first.

He reached out to rest a hand on Michael's cheek. He nudged the ice pack with the side of his hand, encouraging him to move it. When Michael shifted it away, Alex felt a strong urge to wince himself. An eight year old couldn't put a whole lot of power into a punch, but the boy that they'd been fighting with had gotten Michael good. The area around his eye was already starting to blacken. "You took quite a beating today, didn't you Мои маленькие дикие мальчики?"

"Yeah," Michael said. When Alex moved his hand, he put the ice pack back over his eye. "But it was for a good reason!"

"You always think it's for a good reason," Alex pointed out.

"You usually agree that it's for a good reason," Tom said.

Alex was hardly anti-violence. He'd played hockey for most of his life, was used to the way boys tempers and pride flared, and he'd been in his fair share of fights even off the ice. His boys rarely fought for those reasons though. It wasn't just their tempers flaring, but their loyalty to each other and their friends. They fought for each other and for their friends.

Before Alex could argue, because while he agreed with their motives they _were_  a little too quick to pull their fists out, the office door was slammed open.

He was expecting some middle age mother coming to pick up the boy his sons had hit, but instead when he looked away from Michael he found himself staring at a man. He was tall with long blonde hair that framed his face and dark blue eyes. His face was flushed red and his hair sticking out in all directions as if he'd been rushing. He wore dark slacks with a dark blue button up. The sleeves of his shirt had been rolled up, showing off strong forearms.

Alex felt his mouth go abruptly dry.

He'd always believed in love at first sight and right now he'd felt like cupid had shot an arrow right into his chest.

The man looked around, a little frantic, before his eyes caught on the young boy sitting between Tom and Michael. He walked to him quickly, bending down in front of the boy.

"Andre! De sa att du hamnade i slagsmål! Vad hände?""the man asked, words spilling from his mouth rapidly. He put both of his hands on the boy's face, pushing gently to examine all sides. Alex didn't know what language he was speaking, but it fell from his mouth with a grace that Alex admired. "Är du okej? Har du ont?"

""Jag mår bra, papa!"" the boy said. His coloring was darker than the man's, hair and eyes a deep brown and his skin a few shades tanner. He reached up to put his hands over his father's. "Jag blev knuffad, men Tom och Michael stoppat dem innan de slog mig."

Recognizing his sons names in the mess, Alex looked back at Michael. "Please tell me you two didn't hit him."

"Of course not!" Tom objected. The blonde man was squatted in front of his son in a way that made it hard for Alex to see Tom, so he leaned backwards and arched an eyebrow at him. "They sat him right next to us, pops. You really think they'd have done that if we'd hit them?"

"We helped him!" Michael added. "That kid over there is in our class and he was being mean to Andre even though he's only in 1st grade!"

"I wasn't being mean!" the boy across the room said. "He was! It was my turn on the tire swing!"

"There aren't any turns, stupid! Whoever gets there first gets to stay as long as they want," Tom shot back. "It's not Andre's fault you're too stupid to pass a spelling test and had to stay inside!"

"Now, Mr. Wilson, what did I tell you about name calling?"

The words came from a new speaker, someone behind Alex, but the voice was familiar. So was the sharp, reprimanding tone.

"You said not to do it, Principle Williams."

Looking over his shoulder, Alex saw the boys' principle standing outside her office with her arms crossed over her chest. "Then why did you call Mr. Johnson stupid?"

"He can't spell balloon, Principle Williams," Michael said, stressing the word balloon.

Alex resisted the urge to hang his head, wondering why he hadn't stopped his son before they reached this point.

"Not everyone learns the same way or at the same pace that you and Thomas do, Mr. Latta," she said.

"Well yeah, but he's not nice either," Tom said. Alex usually just found it amusing how his sons seemed to act as though they had no concept that they were separate human beings, often answering questions and speaking when the other had been spoken to, but right now he wished they wouldn't. The two of them together were just fanning the flames of disapproval. "It'd be okay that he couldn't spell balloon if he was nicer because than we'd have told him that Mrs. Jones told us not to fill in the box under the picture of the balloon because she decided there weren't enough people in the class that knew it to move on."

"If you respond to meanness with more meanness, then you put yourself on the same level as the bully," Principle Williams said. Tom had his arms crossed over his chest, obviously disagreeing. Principle Williams watched him for a minute before turning away. "Mr. Ovechkin, Mr. Backstrom, can I please see both of you in my office?" She gestured at Felicia, "Ms. Engel will watch the boys."

Alex sighed. Setting his palms on his knees, he pushed himself up to his feet, "Here we go."

* * *

"Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom," Principle Williams introduced, gesturing between the two parents once both of them had settled into chairs across from her desk.

"Hello," Backstrom said.

"Hello," Alex said. Then he added, "You have accent."

"I'm Swedish. We just moved to Washington at the beginning of the school year."

"Accent very good then," Alex said, a little surprised. "Barely noticeable."

"Yours on the other hand is not as subtle," Backstrom said, a small amused smile on his face. "Russian?"

"Да," Alex answered. "I've lived here almost ten years, but it's still thick as ever."

"I don't think that's a bad thing," Backstrom responded. "Speaking Swedish reminds me of home. After so long, your accent must do the same?"

"It does," Alex agreed with a small nod.

"I'm glad the two of you seem to be getting along," Principle Williams said, interrupting the conversation. There was a small hint of irritation in her tone, but it wasn't so overt as to be offensive. "But if we could talk about your sons."

"Yes, sorry," Backstrom said. He shook his head a bit, turning away from Alex to focus on her instead. "I'd like to know exactly what happened. Andre said he was pushed?"

"Yes," Principle Williams agreed. "From what the boys and the playground monitors told me, Louis pushed Andre off of the tire swing because he wanted on it. Tom and Michael were playing nearby and saw him do it. Instead of going to get an adult, the two of them stepped in themselves and it dissolved into a fight." Tilting her head to Backstrom, she said, "Andre came out of it okay. He was complaining that his back hurt initially, but I checked on him after I finished talking to everyone and he said it didn't hurt so much anymore." She turned her gaze to Alex, "Thomas got hit on his cheekbone, but the skin didn't split. It's probably going to bruise, but that's it. Michael took a hit to the eye and that's probably going to blacken."

"And his mouth?" Alex asked.

"Michael bit the inside of his cheek pretty hard," she explained. "We rinsed his mouth and the bleeding itself has stopped."

"Okay," Alex agreed, nodding a bit. He figured the blood he'd seen on Michael's lip had been from that. It'd likely stained his lips when he'd been rinsing his mouth.

"As for punishments, since Louis is the instigator, he'll have a two week suspension." Principle Williams said. "We don't usually like to keep students out for that long, especially this young, but he's already had three strikes and he injured other student so we have to give him a more severe punishment."

"Right," Backstrom said. He looked like he cared about as as much about how extreme the punishment was as he would about gum on the bottom of his shoes. Alex supposed he thought the kid deserved it. He knew he would have if felt the same way if it was Tom or Michael that had gotten pushed, though Alex doubted they would have been separated long enough for someone to push one of them without the other stopping it before it happened.

"Now while I understand that Andre was the victim in this situation, I have to suspend Michael, Thomas, and Andre for the rest of the week."

The next few minutes involved a lot of icy conversation.

Apparently Andre had, at some point, kicked at the other boy while Tom and Michael were fighting with him which meant Andre had to be suspended with the others.

Alex could have spoken up to explain, because he'd heard it more than enough times, that the reason the boys had to be suspended was because the school had a zero tolerance policy for fighting. Even when it was fighting in self defense or in the defense of others. However, Alex found that while Backstrom looked terrifying while angry there was also something very attractive about it.

He didn't have anywhere else to be soon. He wouldn't get back to work since Tom and Michael's nanny took a few college courses while they were at school and he refused to pull her out of class just because the boys had gotten in trouble. So instead he just sat back and watched as Backstrom argued.

* * *

"Aren't you bothered by this?" Backstrom asked, voice still angry as they stepped out of the office a while later.

"Not particularly," Alex said. The boy that had started this entire thing had an angry looking blonde woman sitting next to him now. She stood up before the principle could call her back, looking ready for a fight of her own. Alex didn't really understand how parents could continue to fight for their kids that fiercely when they were enough of a problem to have pushed the three strikes policy to it's limit. He loved his boys, but he fought for them because they hadn't done anything wrong. They fought in defense, not to bully other people. They might have gotten sent home a lot, but they didn't have a single strike on their record for that reason. "There's not real consequence. The boys stay home for few days, but they never put suspension on file if it was defensive."

Backstrom raised an eyebrow. "You've done this before?"

"Yes," Alex said. "The boys are protective of each other and their friends."

"Well, I'm thankful they were here for Andre," Backstrom said. "I hope they aren't in trouble for it."

"They aren't," Alex answered. He thought for a moment before saying, "I usually take boys for ice cream after things like this."

"You reward them with ice cream for suspensions?"

"I'm proud of them for defending someone," Alex said. "You come with? Bring Andre?"

Backstrom pursed his lips for a moment, thinking about it. After a moment, he nodded, "Okay."

"Good! Boys will be excited to have a friend along," Alex answered. Digging into his pocket, he grabbed his phone from it. He clicked the screen a few times to bring up the contact menu before he held it out for Backstrom. "Thinking we go to the Dairy Queen nearby. You put your number in, Nicklas? Don't think we'll get separated on the way over, but just in case."

"Alright," Backstrom agreed with a small nod. As he took the phone, fingertips brushing against Alex's palm, he added, "And you don't have to call me Nicklas. Nicky is fine."

"Nicky then," Alex said. "I'll see you at Dairy Queen?"

"Yes," Nicky said with a small nod. "Should I tell Andre or is this a surprise?"

"More fun if you pretend they're in trouble," Alex said.

Nicky laughed. The sound had Alex's mouth spreading in a wide grin, pleased with having made Nicky laugh. "Alright then. I suppose I'll let Andre think he's in trouble for a few minutes."

"It's a lil mean," Alex said. "But very fun."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) So I've been wanting to write this F O R E V E R, but hadn't had the space in my schedule to do it. With one of my Sidney/Claude fics wrapped up and summer coming up, though, it felt like the perfect opportunity to start. Hopefully everyone enjoyed this first chapter and is looking forwards to seeing how it goes? There's a header image at the beginning of this fic. It's not great because my photo shop skills aren't fantastic and the boys are way younger than they are in the pictures, but I like it. Hopefully you guys did too. 
> 
> 2) Title for this chapter from "Fight For Me" from the Musical Heathers.....Though I suppose you can't see that until I post the next chapter. It's titled "Say, Who Might You Be?"
> 
> 3) I'll give you the details later but things to note: Tom's last name is still Wilson, not Ovechkin. Andre's IS however Backstrom instead of Burakovsky. 
> 
> 4) When I was in third grade I missed balloon on a spelling test. I decided Tom and Michael didn't need to suffer the same way. 
> 
> 5) I went back and forth about the inclusion of the actual ice cream scene in this before I decided ultimately to just have that next chapter.


	2. Forget Art. Put Your Trust in Ice Cream.

"Do you think we're in trouble?"

"No way. Pops never gets mad at us."

"That's not true."

"Okay, yeah. But he never gets mad at us for _this_."

Alex glanced up at the rear view mirror, looking at his sons' in the backseat.

Most kids probably would have chosen to sit at the two window seats, but Tom and Michael were squished together in the backseat. They took turns taking the middle, but it hardly mattered which one of them was actually in because they sat as close as their seat belts would allow.

Right now Michael was sitting in the middle while Tom was sat by the window behind the passengers seat. They had both shifted so they were as close as they could get, their thighs and shoulders pressing together. They were both looking at Alex, leaned in so their heads touched as they whispered.

Alex couldn't help the small smile that pulled at his lips. Some people saw his boys and tried telling him to separate them, thought they were too close, but Alex would never dream of that. The boys were always there for each other. It didn't matter what happened to them because Michael would always be there for Tom and Tom would always be there for Michael.

Maybe one day it would turn into what those parents were so afraid of, and if it did Alex was hardly going to judge them, but right now they were just two eight year old boys. Right now it was just about having someone to play soldiers or firefighters with. Right now it was just about having someone to race with when they were learning to swim or when they ride their bikes for the first time after he took the tricycle wheel off. Right now it was just about having someone to sleep with when they watched a horror movie or to skate with when Alex needed a break for his knee. Right now it was just about them being two boys who had each other.

Still, Alex schooled his expression back into a line.

No matter how many times they did this or how proud he was of them for defending each other, he wanted them to worry for at least a few minutes. Letting them think he was mad at them gave them time to think through what they'd done, to make sure that what they done was actually the right thing. He wanted them to come to that conclusion on their own, not just because he told them they weren't in trouble.

"Yeah," Tom said, nodding a bit as he agreed with Michael. "And we didn't do anything bad, did we?"

Michael hummed before saying, "I don't think pops liked it when we were talking to Principle Williams."

"That wasn't his 'I'm mad at you face,' though," Tom argued. "That was his 'why did you do that' face like when I put mustard on my green beans."

"Mm, yeah," Michael agreed. "Plus Principle Williams always yells at Pops. He was probably just upset that we were making it so he got yelled at more."

"Pops probably likes that we didn't lie to her though," Tom reasoned. "Pops always says its better to be yourself then to lie."

There was a moment before Michael said, "So we're not in trouble then?"

"I don't think so," Tom agreed. "I think he's just trying to act tough."

Michael let out a soft giggle. "Pops isn't tough. He's a giant bear."

"Not a mean one though," Tom added. "But like the bears in Brother Bear who are all nice and only get mean when someone tries to hurt them or their family."

"Yeah!"

Seemingly satisfied with their discussion, the boys fell quiet.

Since they'd come to their own decision that they shouldn't be in trouble, that he wasn't mad at them because they'd done nothing wrong, Alex spoke up. His voice was light, tone normal and filled with that low level of affection for them that it always seemed to be filled with when he spoke to them, as he asked, "Boys, we've been listening to this CD since last Thursday. Can we change it?"

"Yeah," Tom agreed. "It's Michael's turn to pick though."

"Okay," Alex said. "What do you want to listen to, Michael?"

There was a soft hum. Looking up at the mirror again, Alex watched as Michael leaned into Tom's space and pulled open the pouch behind the passengers seat in order to peer at the CD cases in there. He rummaged around for a moment before something caught his eye.

In predictable fashion, he lifted it up slightly so Tom could see it. Even when the boys were able to choose something themselves they ended up asking each other.

When Tom nodded, Michael held up the CD. "This one, pops."

Alex resisted the urge to wince when he saw what Michael had. "Kidz Bop 10? Okay, give it to me."

* * *

Alex only just finished parking the car when Tom and Michael threw themselves out of it.

"Andre!" Tom screeched. The two of them ran across the three parking spaces separating them from the space where Nicky had parked his car. Andre had already climbed out, so the second Michael and Tom reached him they launched themselves at him for a hug.

The two of them were physical people, expressed their emotions best with their bodies, so Alex wasn't really surprised.

Andre didn't look upset about it, though. Michael and Tom were on either side of him with Andre squished between them, their arms around his shoulders, and Andre was smiling as he held onto their forearms. Alex hadn't heard about Andre before that morning so he didn't think the three of them had been friends before, but it was possible the boys had bonded while waiting for him and Nicky to show up for them.

"Boys," Alex said, voice a little chiding as he approached them. "Don't run across parking lots. Make sure there aren't cars first."

"Sorry pops," Tom said. "We were excited!"

"Excitement good," Alex said, flashing him two upturned thumbs. He flipped them afterwards as he tacked on, "Running in parking lots, bad."

"Sorry pops," Michael added. "We'll be more careful next time."

Alex had spent enough time with his boys to know better then to believe them. They didn't do things like this often, but expecting them to completely stop just because he'd told them not to do wasn't very realistic. There would always be times when they didn't remember things like this in their excitement. As long as they knew that they'd done something wrong, he didn't see the point in yelling at them or something just to hammer the idea home.

Catching sight of Andre's father standing on the other side of the car, his arms folded on the top and his chin resting on them as he watched the boys, Alex grinned. He raised a hand in a small wave, "Hi, Nicky."

"Hello," Nicky returned, a small smile at on his face.

"You find okay?" Alex asked.

"Relatively," Nicky said. "I let Andre play with my phone since there's a coloring app he likes. He turned the volume off so we would have missed our turn if it hadn't started vibrating in his hand."

Andre twisted, not necessarily trying to break the hold Michael and Tom had on him but just trying to see his dad. Still, his wiggling had Michael and Tom releasing their hold.

He had to turn all the around and get on his tiptoes, which Alex found absolutely adorable, in order to get himself lifted high enough to see just the bottom of his fathers face. "I said I'm sorry, Papa."

"I know you did," Nicky responded.

"Pops," Tom said, drawing Alex's attention to him. "Will you order for us so we can show Andre the playground?"

There was a small playground that kids liked to play at either while eating their orders or after they'd finished. It was easy for parents to sit down at the tables nearby to eat their own treats while the kids played since it was out in the open.

"If Mr. Backstrom is okay with ordering for Andre."

His boys swiveled around, mirroring Andre's position.

Michael and Tom were tall for their age, but so was Andre. So even though the boys were a little taller now, Alex could tell it was mostly the two years between them. Tom would probably stay a little taller, but Andre would catch up to Michael quickly.

"Can you order for Andre, Mr. Backstrom?" Michael asked.

Tom added, "We really wanna show Andre the playground. We'll be super careful and we won't let anyone push him off the tire swing this time."

"Please, papa?" Andre requested.

"Go ahead," Nicky said. "But be careful going across the parking lot and don't get into anymore fights over tire swings. Share if someone else wants a turn."

"Okay!" the three boys chirped.

Tom and Michael reached down to grab Andre's hand. When they weren't so excited that they ran across parking lots without thinking, the two of them were good about holding hands so they didn't get separated.

"Come on," Tom said, pulling Andre with him as he started walking towards the playground. "You and Michael can get on the swing. I'll push you just like Pops pushes Michael and I when we wanna swing together."

"Boys," Alex called, catching their attention before they could get too far. "You have to tell us what you want before you go to the playground. Otherwise you can't have any ice cream."

"Oh! Right!" Michael exclaimed. "Okay, Andre, you tell your dad while we tell ours. _Then_  we can all go to the playground."

"You won't go without me?" Andre asked.

"We won't go without you," Tom assured. "We can't go without you either. We wanna swing since we didn't get to earlier, but Michael doesn't like swinging alone, so if we go without you then we can't swing and that wouldn't be fun."

"We do wanna play with you, though," Michael added. "It's not just because we need someone else to get on the tire swing with us."

Alex was pleased that the boys were including Andre, but as much as he didn't mind bringing them here he didn't want to be here all day.

"Boys," he said, the reminder soft so they wouldn't think they were in trouble. "You have to give us your order if you wanna go to the playground." 

* * *

"Hi," Alex said, smiling at the girl as he stepped up to the ordering window. "Can I get a medium cookie dough blizzard and a peanut butter parfait." He turned bit so he could look at Nicky who was hovering a few steps behind him. "What are you and Andre getting?"

"A small ice cream cone," Nicky said. "Chocolate dipped in cherry."

"And you?" Alex asked.

Nicky's eyes flicked up to the menu quickly before he said, "A banana split blizzard I think."

"And those as well," Alex added, turning back to to the girl jotting down their order. "With the blizzard as a medium."

"Okay," the girl said. She punched something else into the cash register before saying, "Your total today is $15.71."

There was a quiet moment as Alex and the girl exchanged money, Alex handing her a twenty and her giving back his change which he just shoved into the tip jar on the window ledge, before the girl stepped back to stop making their order.

As she did, Nicky spoke up, "You didn't have to pay for all of it."

"I know," Alex said. Turning, he smiled at Nicky, "Wanted to though."

Nicky was quiet for a moment, considering, before he said, "Alright." After another moment, he added, "You only ordered two things for you guys."

"The boys just get a blizzard to share," Alex explained. "Neither of them will finish one on their own and our freezer isn't big enough to add a bunch of Dairy Queen containers to it."

Nicky opened his mouth to say something, but closed it afterwards. Alex cocked his head a bit, wondering what Nicky was hesitating to say. After a moment, Nicky opened his mouth again and asked, "You didn't want to get anything for the boys mother?"

Ah, Alex thought.

"No," Alex said, shaking his head a bit. "Tom's mother isn't around and Michael's parents are in Asia."

"Oh. Michael isn't-?" he trailed off, confusion in his voice but making it obvious that he wasn't comfortable finishing unless he was wrong.

"Not in those ways," Alex said. "In ways that count though."

"I see."

Seeing an opening, Alex asked, "Andre's mom?"

Alex tried not to feel bad about hoping that Andre's mother wasn't in the picture. He knew, personally, how hard it was to be a single parent. Especially when you were young. Nicky couldn't be much young than himself and Andre was only two years younger than his boys so he'd probably had Andre around the age that Alex had been when Tom came around.

Still, Alex couldn't deny that he was hoping Nicky wasn't with anyone.

Some people didn't believe in love at first sight.

Alex wasn't one of them.

"Andre's mother isn't in the picture either," Nicky said.

"Just you then?"

"Yes." Relief swooped through Alex. There were a lot of things he'd be willing to do for the sake if love, but ruining a family wasn't one of them. "Is it just you with the boys?"

"Usually. Michael's parents business people. They travel a lot and aren't home very often." Wanting to see how Nicky would react, Alex took the opportunity open to him and added, "Had boyfriends and girlfriends before, but not anything serious enough to let them get involved with boys."

Nicky seemed to relax a bit at Alex's words, but Alex wasn't sure if it was because he'd mentioned boyfriends or because Alex opening up made it easier for him to open up. "Andre gets attached quickly so I haven't been with very many people since he was born."

Alex noticed that Nicky hadn't used a pronoun, but didn't want to push any further. So instead, he added, "Plus its hard to date when running after little boys. So much energy."

Nicky laughed, soft and quiet. "That's not wrong."

"Here you go sir."

Turning back to the window Alex found that the girl was holding out the small cone they'd ordered for Andre, the last of their order, through the window.

"Спасибо," Alex said, flashing her an appreciative smile.

He and Nicky both reached forward, Nicky grabbing one of the cups as well as the cone while Alex grabbed the other two cups.

As they turned away from the window, moving to walk towards the playground that the boys were running around, Nicky said, "Russian?"

"Yes," Alex answered. "Lived here for years, but still slip sometimes."

"I do it too," Nicky said. "Do either of the boys speak Russian?"

"They both speak a little," Alex said. "Tom's French better."

Nicky's eyebrows raised. "French?"

"His mother was French-Canadian. She spoke it to him when he was learning to talk. I tried doing the same, but I didn't have as much alone time with him as she did and we stuck to English when we were together since it was our common language."

Talking about it made Alex remember the way Chloe had carried Tom around the kitchen when he was young, speaking to him in soft French about everything from the recipe she was thinking about making to dinner to the weather outside. A familiar hurt swept through his chest, dulled with time but still there.

Nicky must have realized that the conversation had hit somewhere that he hadn't intended, because he steered the conversation away by saying, "So, I think your boys bullied mine into being a princess for them."

Alex looked up at the playground. Tom was standing on a wooden bridge with his arm wrapped around Andre's neck to keep him close to his chest while Michael stood on the ground brandishing an invisible sword towards them. Alex couldn't hear what he was saying, but Michael's mouth was moving in what Alex could only assume were requests for whatever foul beast Tom was pretending to be to let go of Andre.

"I would apologize," Alex said, "but Andre doesn't look like he minds a whole lot."

Tom's hold on Andre was loose, something Andre could have wiggled out of if he really wanted, and Andre was glancing between the two with a look of captivation on his face. Like he was absolutely captivated by the story he was apart of.

"No," Nicky said, his voice fond. Alex glanced over to see a small smile on his lips. "He looks like he's having fun."

* * *

"-and then Mr. Bradshaw pulled Tom off Louis and Tom kept trying to punch him!" Andre explained.

The five of them were sitting at one of the metal picnic tables near the playground. The boys were all sitting on one side. Michael sat in the middle, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with Tom as they shared their blizzard. Andre sat on Michael's other side. His mouth was covered in chocolate ice cream from his cone. Nicky and Alex were sitting across from them. There was a small amount of space between them, but they were close enough that occasionally their elbows knocked together.

"You kept going after you'd been pulled back?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked at his son.

"Louis was being a jerk," Tom said. He stuck his spoon in his mouth. Speaking around it, he said, "He deserved it."

"Agreed," Michael said. He put his spoon in the ice cream, getting himself a bit now that Tom's spoon wasn't in it.

"Oh well," Alex said, voice sarcastic, "I'm sure its true if you two agree."

"I agree too!" Andre added. "Louis pushed me and that was super jerk-y of him."  
  
"Pushing isn't nice, but neither is name calling," Nicky pointed out. "If you call Louis a jerk, your being just as bad as he is."

"Nu-uh," Tom said, words still muffled. "Superman punches people all the time. He's a superhero, not a superjerk."

"Superjerk?" Nicky asked, amused. "Not supervillain?"

"Louis isn't smart enough to be a supervillain," Michael explained. "He can't even spell balloon, much less build a freeze ray."

"Well he definitely can't be a supervillain then," Alex agreed. "Everyone knows that a homemade freeze ray is a vital piece of every supervillain's arsenal."

"Oh definitely," Nicky agreed with a small nod.

"But if punching Louis makes me a supervillain-" Tom said.

"Which is doesn't," Michael piped in.

Tom nodded his agreement as he continued, "Does that mean we can make freeze rays?"

"You can make a freeze ray?" Andre asked. He looked between Tom and the two adults, awe on his face. "Really?"

"No," Nicky said.

Andre's face fell instantly. "Oh."

"But," Alex interrupted, hating the guilt that crossed Nicky's face, "we _can_  make marshmallow shooters."

"Marshmallow shooters?" Andre repeated.

"Their like guns, but their made out of pipes," Michael explained. "You put a marshmallow in one end and blow out the other and it shoots the marshmallow out super fast!"

He punctuated the last sentence by thrusting his hand out as if it was a train zooming down the track.

"Whoa," Andre breathed. "That sounds awesome."

"It is!" Tom exclaimed. "This one time we made marshmallow shooters and Michael shot one at Pops that got stuck to the center of his forehead! It was all gross and gooey when we peeled it off!"

As Michael and Tom started regaling Andre with tales of their marshmallow wars, Alex leaned into Nicky's space. "I hope marshmallow shooters are okay with you? I don't want to offer him something he can't have."

"No, they're fine," Nicky said. "Though, I've never made one myself."

"You could bring him over to our place this weekend," Alex suggested. "We can make them then have a giant war."

Nicky sucked his lip into his mouth, considering. Then he asked, "We wouldn't be bothering you?"

"Not at all," Alex dismissed. "If we do it on Sunday, it'll keep the boys from complaining about going back to school on Monday."

Nicky was quiet for another moment before nodding. "Alright. Sunday then." He looked over at Alex, adding, "Can I bring something to help?"

"Giant marshmallows," Alex said without hesitation. "I can't keep them in the house because then the boys would think they were a good substitute to cauliflower and refuse to eat any vegetables."

Nicky laughed a bit before nodding. "Alright. I'll bring marshmallows over to your place on Sunday."

"And Andre," Alex said, a smile spreading across his lips. "The boys love marshmallows, but I think they'll be disappointed if you show up without their new best friend."

"I'll show up on Sunday with marshmallows and my son," Nicky corrected, a smile on his lips as well.

"It's a date then."

Nicky raised an eyebrow, amusement in his eyes. "A playdate?"

Alex turned back to the kids, voice casual as he threw out a, "Sure. If that's what you want."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hi everyone! I'm so grateful for the positive response you gave last chapter and I hope you enjoyed this one as well!
> 
> 2) There was a kid in my classes in grade school who used to put mustard on his green beans. It spread to the entire class at some point. It died out, but that one kid did it all the way until we graduated high school.
> 
> 3) I wasn't a huge fan of Brother Bear tbh. I didn't really like movies with animals in them. I do understand now though that it was a really good movie, so Tom and Michael mentioned it! 
> 
> 4) Kidz Bop is terrible but I didn't realize that as a kid and neither do these two. 
> 
> 5) Sometimes when writing this fic I worry about Tom and Michael's relationship, but honestly I really like it. Their separate entities, but they also do things largely as a pair. 
> 
> 6) Lil bit in there about Tom's mom, but not really giving the whole story up yet. 
> 
> 7) Not much happening in the final bit, but I just wanted to write about the boys being cute and adorable and this kinda like...family dynamic between them that's going to build over time. 
> 
> 8) Chapter title from Charles Baxter's "The Feast of Love."


	3. Put A Lot of Marshmallows In

Alex leaned against the handle on the shopping cart, pushing it down the aisle. Both of the boys were sitting in the back of the cart. Alex had folded up the small baby seat, so the boys were sitting with their backs against the front of the cart and their legs stretched out in front of them.

It was Sunday morning, a little after ten, and the three of them were shopping for the materials they'd need to make marshmallow shooters with Nicky and Andre that afternoon. Usually pulling the boys out of bed this early on a weekend would have been a struggle, but the boys had been excited for their plans. They'd put up a bit of a fight when it came to getting up, however the second Alex had mentioned Andre coming over they'd practically thrown themselves out of bed.

Despite their enthusiasm the boys hadn't been particularly eager to get dressed. Since it was so early and the boys last day before they had to go back to school so Alex hadn't bothered forcing them out of their pajamas. Tom was wearing a pair of shorts where one leg was done in red and blue stripes while the other was dark navy with white stars. He was wearing a long sleeved shirt with it with pure navy sleeves while the main body of the shirt was filled with an image of Captain America. Michael was wearing a pair of blue plaid pajama pants with a blue tee-shirt that had orange sharks all over it. Michael's hair was cut a little bit shorter than Tom's, but both of them had a spectacular case of bedhead going on. Alex would have tried to tame their hair the way he usually did when they were out, but he just hadn't seen the point when they were just going to buy pipes and paint.

"Can we buy green paint?" Tom asked. There was a stack of pipes of various lengths between his legs. Initially the pipes had been between the boys, but they'd obviously been upset with the distance it put between them. The boys had moved them between Tom's legs so they could sit next to each other with their thighs touching and their shoulders bumping again.

"Green?" Alex questioned. Tom and Michael both preferred reds and dark blues. They'd spent a fair amount of time watching the Wizard's play and interacting with the team, especially given how often he had to pick them up from school and bring them to work with him, that they liked their colors a lot. They'd been exposed to them for their entire life.

"And brown," Tom added. "I wanna make mine camouflage."

"You need more than one green for camouflage," Michael said. "You have to have lots of different greens and browns than you put splotches of them all together."

"Oh yeah." Tom tilted his head back so he was looking up at Alex. "Can we get lots of different shades of green so I can make my shooter camouflage?"

"We can pick up _a few_  shades of green," Alex agreed. The boys weren't exactly artists. They liked the occasional craft with their nanny, but for the most part they preferred playing outside and running around to sitting down doing projects like that. He didn't want to have a ton of paint in the house that they'd never use. "How do you want to decorate yours, Michael?"

"I wanna make a shark," Michael said.

Alex hummed, not really surprised by it. The boys had been watching a lot of discovery channel while they were out of school. He'd come home from work to find the two of them practically transfixed by one about sharks while Piper worked on an essay for one of her classes. Michael had worn the shirt he was wearing now, the one covered in orange sharks, to bed every night since. "So you want gray?"

"Yup," Michael agreed. He added, "Can we get foam too?"

"For a fin?"

"Yeah," Michael said, nodding eagerly.

"Okay," Alex agreed with a nod of his own. They had a hot glue gun at home that he could use to glue the fin onto the top of Michael's shooter, but he wasn't sure they had any sticks for it still. They'd used a few of them up at the end of the last school year when the boys had been doing their final projects. They were allowed to make their projects on whatever they wanted as long as it was something they'd learned about in school that year. Their science classes had been all about the earth so Michael had collected a bunch of different things they'd learned about in class, flowers and rocks and leafs, and presented on what he knew about them. Tom had wanted to make something from their history lessons which had mostly focused on the history of their community as well as their families. Alex and Piper, and Michael, had ended up helping him make a small diorama based on Moscow that he'd presented. He didn't think they'd ever bought more glue sticks after they'd finished that. "What colors should we get for Andre?"

The boys were quiet for a moment.

Alex left them alone, able to tell that they were thinking about the answer.

"Andre likes legos," Tom said at last.

"We should get him lego colors," Michael followed. "That way when he puts them all together it'll feel like he's putting together legos!"

"That sounds like a good idea to me," Alex agreed. "So we'll get some blue, red, and yellow for Andre's legos. You'll share one of your greens with him won't you, Tom?"

"Yeah!"

* * *

Alex and the boys were sitting on the couch, Tom and Michael were watching Tarzan and Jane, when they heard the doorbell go off.

"Andre!" they squeaked at the same time. Before they'd been positively delighted as they watched Tarzan rescue people from a fire, but now they practically jumped off the couch. They ran from the living room, heading towards the front hall.

"It might not be them," Alex said. He pushed himself off the couch, walking to the front door instead of running like his sons.

It was close to the time that Alex and Nicky had agreed on, so Alex was pretty sure it was Nicky and Andre at the door. However, he didn't want the boys to get so so excited only to find out that it wasn't who they wanted to see. He wasn't expecting any other guests, but there was a chance someone was dropping by unannounced.

He was unsurprised to find Michael and Tom standing in front of the door, practically bouncing on their feet. They knew better than to open without an adult there with them, but that didn't stop them from hovering in the doorway when they were waiting for someone. Alex had once had an entire conversation with their mailman while Michael and Tom peeked out at him from under his arm, waiting for Alex to finish up so they could open the presents from their Uncle Geno that the mailman had brought.

It was almost noon so the boys had finally been wrestled into clothing. Tom was wearing a pair of black shorts with a red tank top with Mickey Mouse in the center. Michael had refused to change out of his shark shirt, but he'd conceded to swapping his pajama pants out for a pair of jean shorts.

"It's Andre," Michael said. His tone didn't leave any room for argument, like he knew without a doubt that it was Andre behind the door. He looked away from the door, peering over at Alex instead. "Tommy looked out the window in the hallway."

"Well, okay then," Alex said. It was silly, but he was kind of proud of the boys. He'd been trying to teach them to look to see who was outside before they opened the door so they could be sure it was safe, but usually their excitement got the best of them.

Maneuvering past the boys, Alex grabbed the handle and pulled the door open.

Sure enough, Andre and Nicky was standing on their doorstep.

Andre was wearing a gray tee-shirt with black words with black sunglasses in the middle. The shirt read "My future is so bright you're going to need shades" in swooping black letters. The exception was the final word which was written in gray across the sunglasses. He wore a pair of jean shorts with the shirt and a pair of black shoes on his feet. His arm was lifted up since he was holding his father's hand.

Nicky stood next to him in a dark blue short sleeved button up with white polka dots across it. A row of seven white buttons went down the middle of shirt. With the shirt he was wearing white shorts. Dark sunglasses with blue arms that matched his shirt had been pushed into his hair. Alex's eyes got stuck on the sliver of smooth skin revealed by the two buttons Nicky had undone.

He didn't get to gawk for very long, though, because the next moment Tom and Michael were pushing past him.

"Andre!" they exclaimed for the second time. They wrapped themselves around him, hugging him tightly from either side.

Andre let go of his fathers hand so he could hug them back, though he struggled to get his arms around both of them. "Hi, Tom. Hi, Michael."

"Are you ready to make marshmallow shooters?" Tom asked, pulling away from Andre. As he did, he shifted so he had a grip on Andre's hand instead. Michael did the same, making it so Andre had one of them on each side with a hand held by each. "We woke up really early this morning so we could get all the stuff we needed."

"We got paint too," Michael said. His boys pulled Andre with them as they went to go back inside. Alex moved out of the way before he could stop them up, letting them pass by as he swallowed down the amused laughter in his throat. Andre seemed find with the way Tom and Michael were dragging him around so Alex was more amused by his boys' bossiness than upset. "Tom is gonna make his camouflage and mine is going to be a shark. We got you stuff to make your pieces into legos."

"That sounds fun," Andre remarked.

As the children's voices faded into the background, the three of them walking further into the house as Tom insisted on showing Andre their room before they started working on their shooters, Alex turned his attention back to Nicky.

Smiling widely, he said, "Hi, Nicky."

"Hello," Nicky said, a small smile gracing his lips.

"Would you like to come in?" Alex asked. "Or should I just grab your hand and drag you in?"

Alex was willing to admit that he was a little disappointed when Nicky laughed, answering, "No. I think i can find my way without you holding my hand."

* * *

"Nicky, can you help me glue my fin on?"

The group of them were gathered at the dining room table where they were working on the marshmallow shooters. Alex had already put them together, so the boys were just decorating theirs before they could head out to have their marshmallow war. Nicky and Alex were sitting across from each other at the opposite heads of the table. Tom was sitting to Alex's right with Andre next to him and Michael between Andre and Nicky.

Alex was drawing circles on the top of the pieces of Andre's marshmallow shooter so they would look more like legos with the top connector, Andre had asked Tom for help and then Tom had passed it to Alex for help when he realized he didn't know how to do it either, to find Michael was holding his shooter out towards Nicky.

There was a vaguely surprised look on Nicky's face.

Alex wasn't surprised himself, but he understood why Nicky would be. Michael and Tom were hardly shy, the two of them were always eager to talk to new people and embraced people pretty easily, but Nicky had seen in his interactions with them how independent the boys could be. Their independence wasn't so much because they didn't need help, though, but because they had each other. Michael's first instinct was to ask Tom to help him with something and Tom's first instinct was to ask Michael to help him with something. While there were certainly things they couldn't do since they were both eight years old, they figured out how to do quite a bit without any outside help.

"Pops says Tom and I aren't supposed to use the hot glue gun because we could burn ourselves," Michael continued. "But he's helping Andre, so I thought maybe you could help me instead."

"Of course I'll help you," Nicky said, the surprise leaving his face in favor of a small smile. "Did you already cut the fin out?"

"Yeah!" Michael twisted around, reaching behind him so he could grab the piece of gray foam. It was a thin piece with a large curve cut in that ended up with a pretty nice point. It would make a pretty good dorsal fin for his shooter. "Here it is."

Nicky reached out, taking the fin from Michael's hands. He twisted it around in his hands, looking at it for a moment, before he looked back up at Michael and smiled. "It's a very nice fin. I'd definitely be afraid if I saw this coming towards me in the water."

"Yeah!" Michael repeated. His shoulders were a little bit straighter now, his smile a little wider. Seeing Michael so happy, so obviously pleased with what he'd done, made Alex smile even wider as well.

If he'd ever doubted his sudden crush on Nicky, seeing the man interact with his son was enough to dispel it. It was important to Alex that people in his life realized that Michael meant no more and no less to him then Tom did. He wanted Nicky to be someone in his life. Even if they didn't end up in each others lives the way Alex wanted, the boys were making it clear they wanted Andre to be around which meant Nicky would be around as well. There were people who didn't seem to understand Michael's place in Alex and Tom's life, so knowing that Nicky wasn't one of those people was a huge relief.

"But since you worked really hard to cut this out, why don't you glue it on?" Nicky suggested. "I'll watch to make sure you don't burn yourself. That way you can put it together by yourself, just like Tom and Andre are."

"Is that okay?"

Nicky looked away from Michael, meeting Alex's eyes across the table. Alex gave a small nod, letting him know that he was okay with Michael using the glue gun himself as long as someone was watching to make sure he didn't hurt himself.

"It's okay," Nicky assured.

"The glue gun is in the kitchen," Alex piped in, drawing their attention to him. "I wasn't sure if Michael was going to want to do his fin first or last and I didn't want to leave it plugged in or have one of the boys start playing with it, so I didn't get it out yet."

"That's fine," Nicky said. Pushing his chair back, he said, "I can grab it if you tell me where it is."

"It's in the bottom drawer of the lower cabinets," Alex said. "It's got zebra stripes. Kind of hard to miss."

"Zebra stripes?" Nicky echoed, raising one eyebrow.

" _Pink and black_  zebra stripes," Tom said.

"It's got pink and black zebra stripes," Alex corrected. "It should be right on top. There are glue sticks in the bag on the counter."

"Alright," Nicky said, nodding a bit. "Glue gun painted with pink and black zebra stripes in the bottom drawer and glue sticks in the bag on the counter."

* * *

"Hey," Alex said as he hopped up the back stairs. The boys were running around the backyard with their marshmallow shooters. Alex and Nicky had both played with them at the beginning, but Nicky had ducked out first. Alex had played for a while longer, but now his age was catching up to him. Despite what his graying hair suggested he wasn't that old, but he was definitely too old to be keeping up with two eight year olds and a six year old. "What are you doing?"

The furniture on the back porch was all made of smooth black wood, a color that matched the dark wood the porch itself was made out of, with cushions on the chairs that had light red and blue stripes on them. Alex had considered going with white, but the idea of having white cushions outside of the house that he had two young boys living in didn't sound like a good idea no matter how much he'd liked the colors.

Nicky was sitting in one of the chairs at the table. There were a few unopened bags of jumbo marshmallows, ammunition, sitting in front of him in a pile.

"Just watching," Nicky said. "I'm trying to figure out which of them is winning."

"Andre," Alex said without a moment of hesitation.

"Really?"

"Oh yeah," Alex said, nodding. "Tom and Michael are totally focused on getting at each other. Andre keeps siding with one of them in order to hit the other then switching sides." Meeting Nicky's eyes, he smiled a bit as he added, "It's pretty clever."

"It is," Nicky agreed, laughing a bit as he nodded.

Alex made his way across the porch, stopping in front of the table. He grabbed one of the closed bags of marshmallows, pulling it open with his hands. Nicky's eyes tracked the motion as he did so, watching the way Alex's arms flexed as he pulled. It had something giddy and happy rumbling in his gut, like a teenager who'd just caught their crush looking at them.

After a small moment, Nicky coughed as he cleared his throat. He tore his eyes away from Alex's arms, raising them back to Alex's face as he said, "I know I said this before, but thank you for inviting us."

"It's no problem," Alex dismissed, shaking his head. He reached into the bag of marshmallows, grabbing one of them and popping it into his mouth. "Tom and Michael love playing with Andre."

"Andre loves playing with them," Nicky returned. Turning away from Alex, he looked out at the backyard to watch the boys as they ran around. Michael was attempting to hide behind the swing set, but Andre and Tom were launching a double assault on him from the trampoline. "Andre had a lot of friends in Sweden, but he's been having trouble making friends here. I was really starting to worry about it, so I'm glad he met Tom and Michael."

"I'm glad Tom and Michael met Andre," Alex said. He explained, "They've got a lot of friends, but there's not very many people that they let in like they've let Andre in."

"Looks like all the boys are good for each other then," Nicky said, a small smile spreading across his face as he looked back over at Alex.

"Well except for that bit where my boys dragged Andre into his first fight."

"They didn't drag Andre into the fight," Nicky said. "They just came over to help him and ended up starting a fight around him that he decided to participate in."

"That's a really round-a-bout way of saying my boys dragged Andre into a fight," Alex said. Reaching into the bag, he popped another marshmallow into his mouth. After he'd swallowed, he said, "You and Andre should stay for dinner."

"I wouldn't want us to bother you," Nicky said.

"Andre is in the middle of covering my lawn with marshmallows. You guys staying a little later and helping to eat with us is hardly going to be an inconvenience," Alex said. "Come on. I'm making mac and cheese with bacon in it. I'm even using Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle noodles."

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?" Nicky asked.

"Tom and Michael won't eat the normal stuff," Alex said. "One of my friends called them elbow noodles in front of them and now they're convinced it's some kind of cannibalism."

Nicky let out a loud laugh. "Oh no."

"It's all good. They make plenty of different characters," Alex dismissed. "Come on. Stay for dinner. Michael and Tom will love having Andre around for a few more hours. Plus, it'll keep their mind of going back to school tomorrow for a little while longer and the longer I can push off listening to them whine about that the better."

Nicky was quiet for a moment, seeming to debate the invitation. Then he nodded, "Okay, we'll stay for dinner."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
> 
> 2) [Michael's](http://www.sandipointe.com/im/pajamas/boys-summer-pajamas-0.jpg) pajamas in the first section, only I made the shorts pants, and [Tom's](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB14lvvNpXXXXbGaXXXq6xXFXXXl/Cartoon-font-b-Captain-b-font-font-b-America-b-font-Kids-Baby-Boys-Nightwear-Pj.jpg) pajamas in the first section, only I made the pants shorts. I don't have a reference for Tom and Michael's day clothes, but here are [Andre](http://trendyoutlook.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/kids-sumer-wear-outfits-with-new-style-9.jpg) and [Nicky](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/52/f3/93/52f3930c97cef1dc89ae43a21442967b--white-shorts-cream-shorts.jpg). I'm not sure about Nicky's outfit. I like the outfit itself, but I'm not sure about it on Nicky. 
> 
> 3) I just realized I never mentioned in the first chapter that Alex works for the Washington Wizards as a PT? I think it was clear he worked for a sports team, but not /which/ sports team. 
> 
> 4) Tarzan and Jane is one of my favorite shows on Netflix. I know Netflix gets a lot of attention for things like Sense8 and Orange is the New Black and such (some of which I do enjoy) but there "kids" programming is really fucking fantastic guys. 
> 
> 5) Alex's thighs are defs better than his arms, but I think he's got some pretty good arms as well. 
> 
> 6) I feel like the last bit is a bit of a mess. It switches around quite a lot.


	4. Dinner Is Better When We Eat Together

"I think this one is Raphael," Tom said. He was holding his spoon in front of his face with a singular noodle scooped inside of it. He was peering at the noodle with the kind of single minded intensity that only children were capable of having.

"How can you tell?" Andre asked, leaning into Tom so he could look at the noodle as well.

All five of them were sitting in Alex's dining room at the kitchen table, eating dinner after the boys marshmallow war. The boys had spent several hours running around the backyard with their marshmallow shooters, intermittent breaks to hide behind the areas they'd claimed as their forts keeping their energy from flagging, before coming inside to complain about being hungry. They'd sat in Tom and Michael's room playing with action figures while Alex was cooking. Nicky had sat with him in the kitchen as he did so, talking idly about whatever topics came to their minds. Dinner was finished not too long after the boys came in, but all of them had been eager to get settled and eat.

Their hunger hadn't kept the boys from carefully examining the shapes of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle noodles Alex had cooked.

Alex might have been upset about the fact that they were playing with their food, but they were still eating inbetween their examinations. As long as there was still food going into their mouths, Alex didn't have a problem with them trying to figure out which noodle was Donatello and which noodle was Leonardo. Going by the amused smile on Nicky's face, Alex guessed that he wasn't bothered by it either.

"He's got the thingies," Tom said. He made a stabbing motion with the hand that wasn't holding his spoon. "You know? These things?"

"They're called sai," Nicky informed.

"Right," Tom said, nodding as though he'd known the answer the entire time. Tilting the spoon so Andre could get a better look at the noodle, he added, "He's got his sai. See?"

Alex looked over at Tom's spoon, getting a glimpse of the noodle the boys were looking at. They were sitting with the boys on one side of the table, Andre sandwiched between Tom and Michael like he had been most of the day, while Nicky and Alex sat next to each other on the other side.

"I don't think those are sai," Alex observed. "I think I probably just cut some part of that noodle while stirring it and it ended up making a point." He looked over at Nicky, "What do you think?"

For a moment, Nicky looked surprised that he'd been asked. Then a small smile came over his face. He leaned forward as Alex had, looking at the noodle, then said, "I don't know. It _could_  be sai."

"We should find another one," Michael said. "That way we can see if another one has sai or if Pops just messed this particular noodle up in a really cool way."

* * *

"You really don't have to do this," Alex said for what felt like the ten hundredth time.

He was standing in the kitchen, looking at Nicky who was elbow deep in dish water

The boys had run off to play again, wanting to make the most of the time that Andre was there, once they'd finished their dinner while Alex had went to clean the dishes. On weekdays dishes were one of the boys chores, but on weekends Alex did them so that they'd have more time to play and enjoy themselves. Nicky had followed him, insisting that since Alex had cooked for them he would do the dishes. Alex had tried to argue, but Nicky was fast. He moved himself into Alex's space and grabbed the dishes from his hands before Alex could object.

"Like I said," Nicky said as he rinsed the bowl that Tom had used. It was a mostly white bowl with little dancing frogs surrounding the outside and a thin coat of green around the top. It was part of a set that came with plates that had animal faces on the surface with two little sections for sides that made ears. Alex and Tom's mother had bought them when he was a toddler and they'd remained one of his favorite things. "You cooked dinner for us, so washing the dishes afterwards is the least that I can do."

"You're a guest though," Alex argued.

"I don't think being a guest means that you can't be helpful," Nicky answered. "You've been a great host today and I haven't done very much."

"You helped Michael put the fin on his marshmallow shooter."

Nicky looked over his shoulder, exasperation in his eyes. His voice was flat as he said, "Alex."

Alex felt very abruptly like he was back in Russia, standing in his mothers kitchen as she chided him. She didn't do it to him very often. By this point in their lives, she was used to the type of trouble Alex got into and her default reaction tended to involve sighs more than anything else. The last time his mother had reacted to him with a flat voice was when he'd called her for their weekly chat and explained that he'd fallen in love with a woman he'd met at the coffee shop. Before she'd had time to react to that, he'd added that even though he'd promised to come back to Russia to take his old coaches up on their job offers now that he was graduated, he was thinking of staying in the United States because she was three months pregnant with another man's baby and he wanted to be there for her since the actual father wasn't.

"Fine," Alex said.

"Done arguing now?" Nicky asked, despite the fact that Nicky being elbow deep in dishwater meant that Alex had already lost the argument.

"For now," Alex said. He was pretty sure he was going to end up bringing the argument up again in a few moments, when the guilt of watching a guest do his dishes got to be to much.

Nicky hummed softly, his lips turning up in an amused smile as he turned back to the sink.

Alex had a moment to admire the way Nicky looked, the soft curve of his jaw and the tip of his lips and the way his hair fell into his eyes as he looked down at the dishes, before there was a sharp call of, "Pops!" He looked away just in time to see Tom come skidding into the kitchen with Michael and Andre trailing behind him.

"Tom!" Alex answered, calling his son's name the same way Tom had called him.

"Can Andre stay a little longer?" Tom asked. "We wanna watch a movie."

Looking over at Nicky, he asked, "Do you mind staying a bit longer?"

Nicky was quiet for a moment, mauling the request over, before he answered, "We can stay. I didn't have anything else planned today and I might as well let Andre enjoy today to the fullest before he has to go back to school."

The boys let out a small cheer and Alex clapped his hands together as a smile took over his face.

"Great!" Alex said. "Then I'll help you finish the dishes and than we can all watch together."

Nicky laughed, a small amused snort that had Alex's smile growing even wider, "Nice try, but no. I'm still finishing these by myself. I've really only got the pan left anyway."

* * *

Though the boys had been practically fused together since Andre arrived, they separated as they settled in for the movie. All three of the boys were content to curl up with their fathers, seeming to be exhausted from running around all day and ready to take a break.

Alex ended up with his back against the arm of the couch and his legs stretched out in front of him. Michael sat in the v of his legs, drooping a bit more than Tom, curled up on his side with his head against Alex's chest. The boys didn't cuddle with him as much as they had when they were younger, both the boys and Alex were physically affection people and when Michael had first entered their lives cuddling had been a way of letting him know he was wanted, so Alex was more than happy to do it before they stopped completely. Tom sat cross legged in the space between Alex's calves, far enough down to give himself plenty of space to sit but close enough that Michael's feet weren't too far from him.

Nicky and Andre were sitting in the armchair. Nicky was sitting in the chair with the foot rest up, his legs stretched out in front of him. Andre had shoved himself into the small space at Nicky's side. Alex had heard them talking about it, but Andre had said he liked sitting there and Nicky had let it go.

"This is what we're watching?" Alex asked when the TV lit up with the Mighty Ducks title screen. He'd let Michael put the DVD in and Tom had been hovering right behind Michael as he did so, blocking his view of the case. Now Alex realized that the brief argument he'd heard them having was probably about which of the Mighty Ducks movies they wanted to watch. Tom preferred the first movie while Michael preferred the second. Neither of them cared for the third.

"Yeah!" Tom said, voice filled with excitement as he lifted the remote in his hand. "Andre's only seen it _twice_."

"Only twice?" Alex echoed, making sure to put a measure of horror behind the words. To his kids who had spent a solid three months watching Mighty Ducks, passing the time between their sixth birthdays when Alex had said they could start playing hockey and that winter when they would actually be able to play, the idea of only watching Mighty Ducks twice was a grievous offense. He tilted his head back so he could see Nicky, upside down but there at least, and asked, "How could you do this to Andre?"

"Oh, you're right. I'm sorry terribly sorry," Nicky apologized, voice filled with amusement and a small smile settled on his lips. "How many times should I let him watch it?"

"What do you think?" Alex asked, shifting so he could look down at Michael as he raised an eyebrow in question. "A hundred?"

"No!" Michael objected, with a shake of his head. There was laughter in his voice as he insisted, "A thousand!"

"A thousand?" Alex echoed, glancing over at Tom this time.

"No!" Tom objected, with a fierce shake of his head. "A million!"

Michael let out a small burst of laughter, nodding eagerly. "Yeah! Andre should be able to watch the Mighty Ducks a million times!"

"You heard them," Alex said, turning his gaze back to Nicky. The older Swede's smile had grown and Andre had buried his face in his father's chest as his body shook with laughter. The sight only made Alex smile harder. "Andre should have seen the Mighty Ducks a million times by now."

"Well, we'll have to work on that then," Nicky said. "Should we start the movie? Make it three times so he's one closer to a million?"

* * *

"He's out cold," Alex observed.

He was standing outside in the driveway, watching as Nicky maneuvered Andre into the backseat of his car. He'd offered to carry the sleeping boy for Nicky, but Nicky had waved him off and insisted that it wasn't too hard for him to maneuver Andre around. Alex hadn't pushed. Tom and Michael were still inside under instructions to put their pajama pants on and brush their teeth while Alex showed Nicky out, though Alex was sure he'd hear their footsteps running towards their bedroom when he went back inside.

"Yes," Nicky agreed. He hummed as he reached over Andre to plug the seat belt in. "What's the saying? Out like a light?"

"Yeah," Alex said. He _thought_  that was right as well, but he could admit that even know there were parts of English which tripped him up. Saying like that were one of the most frequent since he hadn't grown up with them the way native speakers did.

"He's exhausted," Nicky said. He straightened up, ducking so he was out of the car and could straighten up. He reached to brush some of his bangs from his face. "He ran out of energy the second he stopped to watch the movie."

"The boys kind of pulled him around today," Alex admitted.

"It's fine," Nicky said. "Andre didn't mind it. He would have made it clear if he did."

"I'm glad then," Alex said. "I know the boys had a lot of fun today. They'd probably really like it if Andre came over again sometime."

"That would be great," Nicky agreed. "Andre had a lot of fun with Tom and Michael as well."

There was a small pause in the conversation.

Alex looked at Nicky standing in the driveway with the night air pushing through his hair, the breeze causing a slight flutter. His pale skin had just a tint of pink from sitting on the porch while the boys blew marshmallows around. There was a small, barely there smile on his lips. Like he'd been having such a good day that even though nothing was really going on, he couldn't stop smiling.

And the thing was that while the boys had had fun today, they hadn't been the only ones. Alex had enjoyed his conversations with Nicky though out the day and he wanted to have more with him.

"Maybe we could watch a movie together again? Without the boys," Alex suggested, breaking the silence. He was quick to add, "Andre is still welcome even if you say no."

"I know that," Nicky said. "You're a good father and a good man. You wouldn't ban Andre just because I said no to a date."

Alex tilted his head, noting the way Nicky's absent smile seemed to be growing. Confused, he asked, " _Are_  you saying no?"

"No, I'm saying yes," Nicky said, his smile growing a bit more. Alex felt his own growing to match. His heart felt so full of happiness and excitement that he thought it was going to burst. It made him feel like a teenage again, but he couldn't quite bring himself to care. He couldn't find shame in these feelings, not ones that felt his good. "I just wanted to make sure you knew that I'm saying yes because I want to and not because I feel like I have to for my son."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hi everyone! I am so sorry this chapter came so far past the one month mark >.< Hopefully you guys enjoyed it and I can get the next one out sooner! This is also a shorter chapter. Hopefully the stuff IN the chapter is enough to make up for that? 
> 
> 2) Gave some more information in here about Tom's mother as well as WHY I told you guys that Tom isn't Alex's biological child. 
> 
> 3) Alex and the boys absolutely own the Mighty Ducks box set because lmao the Mighty Ducks is an awesome movie?? 
> 
> 4) I think I mentioned this before and I'm sure you guys have figured it out, but I made Mike and Tom the same age in this fic despite their age gap. They're both eight right now. 
> 
> 5) It occurred to me the other day that some of you might not know there are other ways to connect with me. So if you want to talk to me about this verse (there's plenty of things that aren't going to make it into the story which I'm happy to talk about if you want!) you can find me [here](http://thepackwantsthed.tumblr.com/ask) on my tumblr! Ask me all the questions about this universe and the characters with in it!


	5. Counting Down the Days

                           

 

* * *

 

"Who are you texting?"

"No one," Alex said. It lacked conviction, though, as he took the time afterwards to finish his message. When he'd sent it off, he looked up from his phone. He was sitting behind his desk at work. There was a pile of papers in front of him that he'd been ignoring in favor of his conversation, knowing that whatever Nicky had to say was going to be less frustrating. "What are you in here for?"

Braden Holtby stood in front of his desk in black pants and a red tank top - one of their Wizard's Staff shirts. There was a patient folder in his hands, which he lifted a bit to draw Alex's attention to it. "I just finished up with Kemba. I thought you might want to know where he stood."

"I do, yeah." Alex lifted up a bit so he could grab the folder. "Thanks."

Instead of letting it go so Alex could take it, Holtby tightened his grip when Alex had his hand on it. "Now, who were you texting?"

"No one," Alex repeated. He tugged on the folder, hoping Holtby would give in. When he didn't, Alex said, words annoyed but tone amused, "I'm a grown up now, _mom_. I don't have to tell you who I'm texting anymore."

Unfazed by the jab, Holtby rolled his eyes, "Who are you kidding? You're like a dinosaur, Ovi. No one was texting when you were a kid."

"Hey!" Alex objected. He pulled a little harder. Holtby let go of the folder. Alex knew that Holtby was letting him have it rather than because he had actually pulled it hard enough to get it out of his grip. Even though he only had it because Holtby let him have it, Alex reached up and swatted the folder against the top of Holtby's head. "I'm not that old."

Holtby gave a noncommittal hum.

There was silence for a moment as Alex sat back down, setting the folder on his desk and flipping it open. Now that he was head of the Physical Therapy department, he wasn't working with the players as much as he used to. Most of his job now was looking over treatment plans for approval and argued with management until they stopped trying to convince him a player didn't need the full recovery time.

Holtby broke the silence, asking, "Are you going to answer my question? Or not?"

"It was just Nicky," Alex said. He knew better than to try putting Holtby off any more than he had. While generally quieter than the others in their friend circle, he was practically a blood-hound when it came to gossip. He seemed to be able to smell even the slightest drop of drama, regardless of whether it involved their friends or a stranger.

"Nicky," Holtby said. He said the name like he was testing it out, rolling it around his mouth as he tried to make sense of it. "Who's Nicky?"

"Andre's dad," Alex answered. Before Holtby could ask the obvious question, he added, "The boys got into a fight with a classmate of theirs for trying to bully Andre even though he's younger than them."

Holtby shifted his weight, leaning back a bit and raising an eyebrow. "And now you're talking to his father?"

Alex shrugged. "You know how the boys are. It's easier to go along with it when they decide someone is part of their circle. It makes life a lot less difficult."

"The boys adopting a schoolmate doesn't explain why you're texting the dad."

Alex thought for a moment about what he wanted to say. As excited as he was for his date with Nicky, as far as he'd fallen when he'd first seen Nicky, he wasn't ready to tell his friends about it yet. They would be supportive, happy that he was moving past Chloe and trying to develop a serious romantic relationship finally, but Alex wasn't ready for that yet.

He wanted a little bit of time where it was just him, Nicky, and their children as there was no relationship between single parents that _didn't_  involve the children in some aspect. Even when Alex had gone out with people who would never meet his boys as he never liked them enough for that, the boys had been apart of that relationship because they affected so much of what Alex thought and what he had the ability to do.

"We hang out when the boys are playing," Alex said at last. Hoping to draw the conversation elsewhere, he tapped on the file. "Give me the outline?"

Alex had never been so thankful for work than he was when Holtby went with it instead of pushing further.

* * *

"Hello?"

The sound of Nicky's voice, voice a quiet lithe and his accent soft but undeniable, had butterflies kicking up in Alex's stomach. He hadn't been nervous before, but apparently the sound of Nicky's voice was enough to make him feel like a school girl with a crush. It was a sick, float-y feeling. Not bad, but nerve-wrecking and embarrassing. His mother had drilled respect for women into him his entire life, but now more than ever he had a respect for those that had been mocked for feeling this way when they were nothing but children in love.

"Hi, Nicky," Alex greeted, trying to keep the feeling out of his voice. He was sitting in the parking lot at work. He'd gotten off his shift a few minutes ago and had spent a while sitting there, nervously debating whether or not to call. Texting had seemed convenient, but less personal. He wanted Nicky to know that he cared about this. "It's Alex."

"I know," Nicky said, sounding a little amused. "Even if I didn't have a caller ID, I would have recognized your accent."

"Russian accent is the best accent," Alex boasted.

"At the very least, it's recognizable," Nicky said. "So why did you call?"

"I wanted to talk about next weekend," Alex said. Thinking about their date had the butterflies swarming again, but he was excited for it.

"About our date?" Nicky asked. The amusement in his voice was more apparent then ever, but there was also a soft sort of happiness under it. Alex had had a small smile on his face the entire conversation, but now it was growing with the knowledge that Nicky was just as happy about their plans as he was. It was comforting to know that at least in some measure, his feelings were returned.

"Yes," Alex said. Even though Nicky couldn't see it he found himself giving a small, pleased nod. "I thought maybe we could talk about what you wanted to do? And what day weekend would work best for you?"

"I hadn't really thought about it," Nicky admitted. Alex had been stuck in this weird place where it was both all he thought about and something he never thought about. There had been times since he'd asked when all he could think about was what they should do and there were times when he was so happy that Nicky had said _yes_  that he couldn't think of anything other than that. He wondered if it was the same for Nicky. "But I was wondering if it would be easier to get one babysitter than two."

"I asked Piper - That's the boys nanny. I think they probably mentioned her to you a few times? - if she would be okay with working one night that weekend. She won't mind watching Andre as well."

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to bother her..."

"She definitely won't mind," Alex assured. "Actually Tom and Michael have been telling her stories about Andre for the past week. She'll be relieved to finally put a face to the name."

"Really? What have they been telling her?"

"Well, apparently at school on Tuesday...."

* * *

                             

* * *

Alex paused in the entry to the dining room, taking a second to look at the scene in front of him.

Tom and Michael were sitting at the table doing their homework with Piper across from them on her laptop. Michael was wearing a bright blue tee-shirt with little yellow chicks all over it and white lettering that said, 'Chicks are all over.' With it he was wearing a pair of jean shorts, obviously enjoying the day since October was coming to an end and the unseasonably warm weather would probably leave with it. Tom was wearing a white shirt with three dinosaurs of increasing size walking across his chest. The shirt was stained with dirt and grass that they hadn't been able to wash out. He also wore a pair of dark jeans.

Neither outfit was what they'd been wearing when Alex had sent them off to school. They were play clothes, not school clothes. They were old enough that Alex didn't insist on them changing, their school clothes weren't terribly nice and they could usually keep from ripping them in half, unless they were going to be outside getting particularly dirty.

Piper must have taken them to the park. She did that fairly often on Friday afternoons, giving the boys room to get out any energy they had pent up from the school week. Her taking them to the park also explained why the boys were still working on their homework instead of having finished it and run off to play already.

"What are we working on?" Alex asked, announcing his presence to the room.

"Pops!" the boys cheered, heads popping up to look at him immediately. Both of the boys had wide grins on their face.

"Hi," Alex greeted, smiling as he crossed the room. He stopped behind the boys, dropping a kiss on both of their heads. He put a hand on each of their backs, leaning between them so he could see what they were working on. "Multiplication?"

"Yeah," Michael said, nodding a bit. "We're going two digit numbers now!"

"We have a test on Monday," Tom informed him. "Then we're moving onto three digit numbers."

"That's amazing," Alex complimented. Jokingly, he added, "At this rate, you two are going to be smarter than me before you get to fourth grade."

"We're already smarter than you pops," Tom argued.

Alex reached up to ruffle Tom's hair, laughing as he shook his head, "Not yet you aren't." When Tom ducked to get away from him, Alex looked over at Piper. He usually waited until the boys weren't around to ask her how they'd been so she could give her opinion of the day without their interruptions, so instead he asked her, "And what are you working on, Piper?"

Piper had been working for the Latta's practically since Michael had been born. She'd been fresh out of college at the time, having just finished a degree in childcare, and they paid her well enough that she'd never left. Now that Alex took care of Michael when his parents were gone, she was really more of a babysitter than anything since Alex only needed her for the few hours between them getting out of school and him getting out of work. It'd opened up her schedule so she could go to back to school for her graduate degree, taking classes while the boys were at school, and get a job at a late-night daycare center for after she left. The second job wasn't necessary, her salary hadn't gone down just because Alex took over, but she liked the work and helping the single and hardworking parents who worked late at night.

Just in to her thirties, she'd gotten rid of the long dark brown hair that she'd had as long as Alex had known her and cut it into a layers that ended around her chin. When Alex had asked her about it, she said it'd made her feel a little older than the long hair had. Her eyes were a dark blueish gray and her skin a medium brown. Once when the boys had been younger, there had been an incident where the boys had gotten in her purse and thought her foundation was chocolate.

"I'm just looking for coloring sheets," Piper informed him. "Some of the kids in the daycare program have trouble sleeping at night. Coloring keeps them occupied without getting them too excited."

"Ahh, makes sense," Alex said. He watched the boys work for a minute, checking over what they did so he could help if they made a mistake, before looking back at her. "Are you still free to work tomorrow night?"

"Yup," she agreed. "I usually have the weekends off at the daycare anyway, so it won't be a problem."

"Do you mind taking on another charge?" he asked.

"Not particularly," Piper answered. She'd been focused on her screen, but now she looked up. She knew who Alex's date was, so she asked directly, "I assume you mean Andre?"

Alex nodded a bit.

Before he could say anything else, Michael and Tom's heads had perked back up.

"Andre?" Michael said. He craned his head back, eyes filled with excitement as he looked at Alex. "Andre is coming over, pops?"

"Not tonight," Alex said. "But tomorrow night, yeah."

Now, Alex thought as the boys cheered, he'd just have to explain to them _why_  it was that Andre was coming over.

* * *

"Pops, what time is Andre coming over?"

Alex was focused on the omelets he was making for breakfast, so he didn't turn around at Michael's question.

Saturday morning had a certain routine to it, though, and Alex didn't really need to turn around to know what he would find. Tom and Michael were sitting at the kitchen island, still in their pajamas, watching Saturday cartoons on the tablet Alex had set up for them. Today Tom was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt with a white dinosaur skeleton on it along with black pajama pants. Michael was wearing a navy blue shirt with a monkey that held a banana in it's hand on the bottom with navy pants covered in bananas. Neither of them were morning people, but Michael tended to wake up a little quicker once he was up so Tom would be leaning heavily against him.

"Not until tonight," Alex said.

"Okay, but _when_  tonight?" Michael said.

Alex hummed, thinking about their plans for that night. He and Nicky had agreed to go out for a nice dinner, somewhere that they couldn't really go when they had young children with them, before going for a walk through the arboretum. There was one not far from them that was open late into the night, one that presented a beautiful and glittering view of plants that weren't native to the area.

"He'll probably be here around five or five-thirty," Alex said. He'd discuss exact times with Nicky later, but they'd agreed on roughly six for dinner. They weren't going anywhere that they really needed reservations and he knew Nicky would want a chance to speak to Piper before leaving his kid with her. "So you've got the entire day left."

"Piper is coming today too?"

"Yeah." Alex was quiet for a moment before looking back at them. "She's going to watch you while Andre's papa and I go on a date."

Alex wasn't really sure what he was expecting from telling his sons what was going on, but he wasn't expecting Tom to say, "Old people like you don't go on dates, pops."

A small, surprised laugh bubbled out of his throat. "They don't? Why not?"

"Well because you date so that you can get married and have babies right?" Tom said. "But you already have us!"

"I do," Alex said, feeling ridiculously fond of his son despite having been called old. "But you also date people because you feel a special kind of love for them and want to spend more time with them."

There was a moment as they mulled this over before Tom nodded.

Michael spoke up, saying, "As long as you don't have any more babies with him."

"Yeah!" Tom agreed, nodding again. "We don't want a brother."

"No?" Even though he knew it was getting ahead of himself, Alex said, "Not even if that brother was Andre?"

The boys exchanged looks, having one of their private conversations, before Michael looked back at Alex. "Maybe if it was Andre, but no one else."

"I'll keep that in mind then," Alex promised.

* * *

                          

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hello everyone! Hopefully you've had a good month and liked this chapter!
> 
> 2) I used a similar format as I did for the chapter of [Precious and Fragile Things](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9116587/chapters/24535740) where Claude and Sidney were seperated and liked it a lot. I thought it'd make a good format for this fic as well. Hopefully everyone was okay with it?
> 
> 3) Alex absolutely has emojis in his contacts. Honestly he probably also had a picture of an angel as Nicky's contact pic (do iphones have those? I dunno). 
> 
> 4) I don't watch basketball. So to create the Wizard's team that Alex works for, I just used a website which randomly spits out an NBA player and used whoever it gave me. All of those people are Wizards now.
> 
> 5) I'm not sure how I feel about the first section....Holtby and his dynamic with Alex feels weird to me? How did you guys feel about it? Did I get it right/acceptable?


	6. I Didn't Fall in Love With You....I Flew

"Okay," Alex said, walking into the living room. He spread his arms wide, putting himself on display for the three seated on the couch. "What do you think?"

The plans he and Nicky had made weren't too fancy, so Alex had settled for light jeans with a dark red sweater. Under Piper's advisement, he'd rolled the sleeves up above his elbows to show off his forearms.

"Good," Piper said.

Sitting together to Piper's right, Michael in the middle of the couch and Tom against his side, his boys drove her point home by thrusting their arms up and giving him a full four thumbs up.

Even though it wasn't quite six yet, all three of them were wearing pajamas all ready. Piper was wearing a pair of fuzzy black pajama pants covered in pink and blue ice cream bars with a light pink tank top. Michael had on a pair of light blue pajamas pants with three different robots on them along with a long-sleeved dark blue shirt that had the three robots lined up across his chest. Tom was wearing a plaid light blue button up pajama shirt that was covered in Mickey Mouses along with matching bottoms.

"You three are all ready for your movie night?" Alex asked.

"Yeah!" Michael said. "Tom and I picked out a few movies, but we decided to give Andre the final choice."

"Oh yeah? What did you guys pick?"

"The Incredibles, Cars, or Shark Tale," Tom said.

"Those are good choices," Alex said.

Before he could say anything else about his son's choice in movies, there was the sound of a car pulling into the driveway.

Piper turned her head, leaning backwards to peer through the curtain. "I think they're here."

"Okay," Alex said. A sudden rush of nervous washed over him, butterflies flying around in his stomach, and he swallowed hard. "Okay. Okay."

As Michael and Tom shot off the couch, running towards the door, Piper gave Alex a knowing look. The smile on her face was full of amused affection, a little mocking but well-intentioned, and understanding. Alex made a face at her before he turned away, following the boys to the doorway.

He reached the entry hall just as someone knocked on the door.

"Away from the door boys," Alex said as he walked towards it. "It could be someone else."

"It's not," Tom said. "Michael and I saw Andre and his dad through the window."

"That doesn't change the fact that your not supposed to answer the door without asking, now does it?" Alex answered. He stared at the boys for a moment, one eyebrow raised, before they both stepped backwards to let him through. There was a pout on both of their faces. Alex ignored them in favor of stepping past them. He reached for the doorknob and pulled the door open.

Nicky and Andre were standing on the doorstep.

Alex had called ahead to let Nicky know what the boys plans for the night were, so Andre was wearing pajamas just like the boys and Piper were. He had on a pair of red and white stripped pants with a long sleeved gray shirt that had a firetruck in the center. The end of his pants were tucked into his shoes - black tennis shoes with electric blue laces.

Nicky stood behind Andre. He was wearing dark blue pants with a short sleeved white button up. There was a brown belt looped through his pants. He'd tucked his hair back away from his eyes, pushing it back behind his ears instead.

"Hi," Nicky said, a soft smile coming over his lips.

"Hey," Alex said, feeling his own both stretch in a grin.

He opened his mouth to tell Nicky that he looked nice, only to be cut off by Tom and Michael darting forward with a shouted, "Andre!"

Michael and Tom had two years on Andre. Though they weren't old enough to really be putting on muscle, those two years made a pretty big difference as far as height and weight went. So when they tumbled into Andre, the six year old stumbled back into his father's legs.

"Oh!" Nicky exclaimed, reaching down to put his hands on Andre's shoulders and steady him.

"Boys," Alex said, "be careful not to mow the guests over."

"Sorry, Andre," Tom said.

"Sorry Andre's papa," Michael said.

"It's okay," Nicky answered, sounding a little amused.

Andre nodded, agreeing with his father. He wrapped his arms around Tom and Michael, struggling a bit to get his arms around both of them before finding a position that gave him enough room to squeeze them both tightly. "I'm happy to see you guys too."

"We're gonna have lots of fun tonight!" Michael said, pulling back from the hug.

"Yeah!" Tom said. When he pulled away from the hug, he grabbed onto Andre's hand and led him into the house the way he had during Andre's last visit. Michael followed after them. "Piper said that after we have dinner she'll make us popcorn mix!"

"She makes really great popcorn mix," Michael said. Alex was so bemused by their actions that he just moved out of the way when the boys came near him, needing to pass him to get through the doorway and into the house. "She puts m&m's and pretzels in it!"

"Papa and I usually have caramel popcorn," Andre told them, "but that sounds yummy too."

Alex glanced over his shoulder as the boys disappeared down the hallway before turning back to Nicky.

"It looks like your son's are getting into the habit of dragging mine along with them," Nicky remarked.

"If it makes you feel better, they do that with everyone they like," Alex said. Opening the door a bit wider, he gestured for Nicky to step inside. "Come on. I'll introduce you to Piper and then we can leave the boys to their movie night."

* * *

"What did you order?" Alex asked, peering over at Nicky's plate.

The two of them were sitting at a table in the restaurant they'd decided to go to. It wasn't too nice, but it was the kind of place neither of them went to often since they had young boys running around.

It had been nice so far.

Alex had driven them over. During the short drive, they'd had a brief conversation about music. There was general groaning about the type of music their son's liked, not about the fact that they necessarily disliked it but because the boys would fixate on something and refuse to listen to anything else, and laughing when Alex explained that Tom had developed a liking for "Buttons" by the Pussycat Dolls. When Nicky rummaged through the CDs in the car, trying to find something that neither of them had heard a hundred times that week, he'd ribbed Alex about the amount of Russian techno he had tucked away from the boys.

Their time at the restaurant had, so far, been nice as well. They'd talked a bit about their work, Alex was surprised to learn that Nicky worked in PR for the Redskins and scared their players out of causing scandals, and a bit more about themselves. Alex learned that Nicky had played hockey like he had, but been sidelined by an injury and developed a love for PR. He'd played hockey throughout his teen years, but decided against pursuing it further. There'd been talk about the boys as well, because they both loved their kids and Alex's pulled enough stunts that it was hard not to tell stories about them.

"Seafood pasta. It's got shrimp and scallops," Nicky answered. He was looking away from Alex, moving to unwrap his silverware, but he looked up. He raised an eyebrow when he saw Alex looking at his plate. "Why?"

"Looks good," Alex said. He'd gone pretty standard, getting steak and lobster, but now that he was looking at Nicky's food he was doubting his choice.

"Do you want to try it?" Nicky asked.

"Can I?"

"I wouldn't have asked otherwise," Nicky said.

Having gotten his fork free from the wrappings, he stuck it through a shrimp before spinning the fork. When the pasta was wrapped around it, he lifted it up with his hand under it and held it towards Alex.

Alex was a little surprised at first, he thought he'd just use his own fork, but he went with it.

Placing his hands on the table, he lifted himself up and leaned over to close his mouth around the fork.

As he pulled back he let out a soft, pleased hum.

"Yummy," he said after he swallowed. He licked his lips, chasing the pleasant taste that lingered there. He noticed Nicky watching the motion, eyes darkening just a bit and his own tongue darting out to wet dry lips.

When he'd been younger it had been a simple thing to have someone want him. Alex had been told it didn't happen any less often now, but he was less aware of it. He was usually too occupied with keeping Michael and Tom from running into the street to notice people that found him attractive. It gave him a bit of a confidence boost to see Nicky reacting to him the same way.

Alex grinned at him, knowing and pleased.

It could have been awkward, but instead Nicky just let out a huff of laughter as he went to get a spoonful for himself. 

* * *

"-and then he looked at me and then they said that the commercial had lied so they found a different way to make it explode."

Nicky let out a loud burst of laughter as Alex finished up his story.

They were walking around the arboretum. There weren't many open this late, but the plants surrounding them now were ones that seemed to shine even more in the glow of night. It was a beautiful place and seeing it with someone Alex was so fond of only made it that much more so.

They were walking close enough together that their fingers kept catching on each others. Alex, apparently, hadn't matured much since he was a teenager because the idea of actually reaching out to hold Nicky's hand was as nerve-wrecking as it had been on his first date almost two decades ago.

"Neither of them were hurt?" Nicky asked, though there was a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Yeah, they were fine," Alex said. "The capri sun pouches were the only things that were harmed."

"That's good." Nicky was quiet for a moment before he let out a soft sound. "It's good that Tom and Michael are so energetic."

"That's one way to put it," Alex agreed. Glancing over at Nicky, he asked, "Is Andre not the same?"

"Sometimes," Nicky said. "Not to the extent that your boys are though."

"Well, I'm sure that'll change if he keeps spending time with them." Alex added, "They're always together and they're almost always on the same page. They just kinda pull others along for the ride because it never really occurs to them that they aren't on the same page as the two of them."

"For the record," Nicky said, "Andre has a lot of fun with them. He doesn't really mind when they drag him along with them."

"That does seem to be the general consensus amongst the kids they play with." Alex considered the boys his sons were drawn to before adding, "Though, that might be because half of them cause just as much trouble when alone as they do when they're with Michael and Tom."

Nicky let another laugh. Alex felt a rush of pleased warmth every time it happened. He liked being able to make Nicky laugh.

"Did you grow up with siblings?" Nicky asked.

"Yes. I had two older brothers," Alex said. There was a sharp pain that lanced through him when he thought of Sergei, a contrast to the happiness that had settled over him the rest of the night. It hurt to think about his oldest brother, but it hurt even more to think about how Michael and Tom would never know him. "Did you?"

"I have an older brother as well. I don't think we were ever as energetic as Michael and Tom are, but we got into our own mischief." Nicky hummed a bit before adding, "I'm happy with Andre, especially considering I never really expected to have a kid as young as I did, but sometimes I think that he's missed out by now having a sibling."

"There's nothing wrong with being an only child," Alex pointed out.

"No, but I think having a sibling makes life much more fun."

"Well, he might not have any blood siblings," Alex said, thinking about the conversation he'd had with the boys about babies and Andre, "but I think Michael and Tom have already decided that he's their little brother so I don't think you need to worry about it that much."

Nicky smiled a bit. Their fingers caught again, but this time Nicky moved so he could grab onto Alex's hand instead. Their fingers slotted together, palms warm where they touched. "That's good to know."

* * *

"Soooo," Alex said, drawing the word out as he and Nicky walked towards the steps leading up to the house. "I had fun tonight."

He glanced over at Nicky.

Nicky had a small smile on his lips and there was a small sparkle of what Alex thought was happiness in his blue eyes.

"I had fun too," Nicky said. "We should do it again sometime."

"We should," Alex agreed. They came to a stop right before the stairs, turning towards each other. Their eyes met and Alex's heart picked up it's pace, like it was going to break free of his chest and run right into Nicky's hands. "Sometime soon."

"Soon sounds nice," Nicky said, nodding a little bit. They stood like that for a moment, just looking at each other with smiles on their lips, before Alex found his gaze drifting to Nicky's lips. Nicky's smile widened, another soft chuckle falling. Alex forced himself to look back up at Nicky's eyes, only to find that amusement had nestled in next to the happiness. There was something else there too, something a little less innocent. "Alex, we're not teenagers you know. I'm more than happy to kiss on the first date."

"Yeah?" Alex said, accent thickening as his voice deepened. Despite the slight question behind the word, he found himself already drifting closer to Nicky.

"Yes," Nicky said.

He reached out, twisting his fingers in Alex's sweater.

Alex was only a few inches taller than Nicky, so when they were flush together it was a simple matter to slot their lips together. Nicky looked up, just slightly, Alex looked down, just a little bit, then they were kissing.

Nicky's lips were soft against Alex's.

Generally quieter and more reserved than Alex, he'd been expecting Nicky to be a little more pliant under his touch. He'd expected that Nicky would let him lead the kiss, following along with Alex's cues. Instead Nicky gave as good as he got. Neither of them were in control exactly, but they both knew what they wanted and it was easy to get those desires to match.

Kissing Nicky was _nice_  and Alex found himself moving to put his hands on Nicky's hips.

There was a moment of calm as they kissed then a loud thump resounded behind them, followed by an irritated, "Michael!"

"Oops," Alex heard Michael said, his voice distant and muffled. "Sorry, Tom."

Alex pulled away from Nicky, turning his head to look behind him.

Tom, Michael, and Andre were all pressed against the front window. Tom and Andre were right against the widow while Michael was behind Tom. Tom was squished extra close to the glass, like Michael had slipped and shoved him into it.

"I'm pretty sure it's past their bedtime," Alex murmured.

Nicky laughed, his breath ghosting against Alex's cheek. "Probably."

Alex let out a soft sigh.

Turning back, he left a quick peck on Nicky's lips before pulling away.

"Come on," he said. "Let's go see our spawns."

"Spawns?" Nicky said, laughing as bit as he shifted. He grabbed Alex's hand again as they started walking up the stairs. "You're being a little dramatic."

"Not when they're stopping me from kissing cute Swedes."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hi everyone! I hope you had a nice month and that you enjoyed this chapter. 
> 
> 2) Link dump! [Michael's pajamas](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1n1z.JpXXXXa.aXXXq6xXFXXXL/Fashion-Baby-Sleepwear-set-Cotton-Boys-Suit-Dino-Robot-Longsleeve-Children-s-clothing-set-Bebe-Kids.jpg) and [Tom's pajamas](https://shop.r10s.jp/bemagical/cabinet/a_item10/15062039iq10g22560.jpg) and [Andre's pajamas](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71DOE62g5PL._UY445_.jpg). 
> 
> 3) Shark Tale and the Incredibles came out in 2004, but Cars came out in 2006 so this fic is at least after that. 
> 
> 4) Chapter title is from Colleen Hoover.


	7. Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble

                          

* * *

 

"Come on, Andre," Tom said. He was urging the younger boy as if Andre wasn't going fast enough for him, but he was pulling Andre along by the hand. It didn't really _allow_  for Andre to go any slower than the pace Tom had set. Michael was on Andre's otherside, walking alongside them without grabbing Andre's hand as Tom had. Alex and Nicky were walking behind the boys. Alex had already reached out, taking Nicky's hand in his own and slipping his fingers through Nicky's. "We have to hurry!"

Tom was wearing a pair of dark jeans with a plain white tee-shirt and a yellow and black flannel. Alex had tried to convince him to wear a jacket as well, but Tom had been adamant that it wasn't that cold. It wasn't warm anymore, but it wasn't freezing either so Alex had let him getaway with it. Michael was wearing a shirt with long black sleeves and a white center. There was orange lettering across the white that said, 'All the Ghouls love me' with a little ghost floating to the side. He was wearing light jeans with it. Both of them were wearing dark brown timberland boots on their feet, ready to go stomping through the pumpkin patch in search of their preferred size. Andre was wearing dark jeans with a light gray sweater. Over the sweater, he wore a dark green vest that he had zipped up. He had a pair of green sneakers on his feet. The group of them had gotten lunch before heading over and when they'd gone to leave Andre had noticed his shoes were untied. Nicky had gone to bend down and tie them for him, Andre hadn't quite gotten the hang of it yet, but Michael had offered to do it instead so Andre's laces were done with large bunny ears.

"Last year Tom and I found this huuuuge pumpkin, but these two girls showed up and claimed they found it first," Michael said. His face scrunched unpleasantly as he remembered the exchange. "They were really mean, but boys are supposed to hit girls so we just let them have it."

Honestly, from what Alex knew of the situation, he wouldn't have blamed his boys if they'd hit the girls in question. They'd been a little older than them, but that hadn't stopped the girls from pushing his boys around and bullying them into giving up a pumpkin of all things. Still, he was proud of them for not fighting the girls.

"So this year we've got to find the biggest pumpkin before anyone else does," Tom explained.

"Okay," Andre agreed. "I don't want a big pumpkin for me though."

"You don't want a big one?" Alex asked. Andre looked over his shoulder before shaking his head. "Well, what kind do you want instead?"

Andre hummed before saying, "A round one! Not too small, but not big either."

"Okay then, boys," Alex said. "We've gotta find one really big one for you two and a medium sized round one for Andre. Are you going to accept this mission?"

"Yes!" Michael and Tom cheered, voices loud. Michael even went as far as to

Andre looked between them.

"Andre," Alex said, smiling when the younger boy looked at him again. "Are you going to accept the mission to?"

Andre nodded eagerly. Taking a cue from Michael and Tom, he let out a loud, "Yes!"

"Alright then," Alex said, nodding a bit. "Off you guys go."

Given permission to run off, Tom tightened his grip on Andre's hand. "Come on! All the really big pumpkins are over here! We can find the one Michael and I want first so that no one else can take it then we can search for yours, Andre!"

"Okay," Andre agreed, picking up his pace.

As the boys ran off, Nicky glanced over at Alex. "Mission?"

"They like James Bond," Alex said with a small shrug. "Letting them treat it like a spy mission means that they're more likely to stay on track."

"That's cute," Nicky said. He gave Alex's hand a squeeze. "Thank you for including Andre."

"It's no problem," Alex said. He squeezed Nicky's hand as he added, "I'm hoping the two of you will be around for a long time, so we'd better start teaching him the games now."

* * *

"I think we've reached the point where the boys are no longer interested."

Alex had his head ducked down as he focused on carving the particularly tooth-y smile that Tom and Michael had drawn on their massive pumpkin, but now he looked up to find the boys running around the yard. They'd been sitting next to him, watching as he carved and talking about what they'd drawn, but he'd seen them get up a while ago. He figured they'd just gone inside to go to the bathroom or something, though.

"Looks like it," Alex agreed.

Nicky had been standing up next to him, having gone inside to get the candles they had bought to put inside the jack-o-lanterns, before, but now he dropped down next to Alex. He folded his legs under himself, crossing them so their knees were touching. He set the bag of candles, small three inch ones, down next to him along with the lighter. He set his palms against the deck, leaning back with his weight against them as he watched the boys.

"I'm not really sure who's it," Nicky said.

Alex had been looking at Nicky, absorbed in the way the fading sunlight streaked through his hair and made his pale skin seem to shine, but now he turned his attention back to the running children. He squinted at them for a moment before admitting, "I don't have any idea either." He added, "It looks like they're having fun though."

"It does," Nicky agreed. A small smile came to rest on his lips, soft and affectionate. He looked over at Alex, leaning closer as he did. Their shoulders bumped together as Nicky peered down at the pumpkin Alex had resting in his lap. "It looks like it's going okay."

"Better than I thought it would," Alex admitted. A pleased warmth swept through his body, starting at the point where their shoulders touched and spread out from there.

"I'm glad you're the one carving, not me," Nicky said. They'd agreed that having more than one knife out while the boys ran around, especially Tom and Michael who would never purposefully injure someone seriously but were likely to grab it in order to do something that they found cool, wasn't a great idea. So Nicky had helped them scoop the innards out into the giant bowls Alex had given them. Once everything had been cleared out and the boys had drawn their desires faces onto the pumpkins, Alex had taken over. "The teeth on this one are intimidating."

"Yeah," Alex agreed. Tom had drawn the mouth on his and Michael's pumpkin, Michael had drawn the eyes and nose, and he hadn't shied away from making sure there were lots of sharp, pointy teeth. "I don't think I'm doing a bad job though."

"I don't think you are either," Nicky agreed.

"I'm glad Andre went with something a little simpler though," Alex said. Andre had opted for a wide open mouth, adding a total of four pointy fangs so it could be a vampire pumpkin. "I don't think I'd last if I had to do this twice."

Nicky hummed quietly. "Which one are you doing next?"

"Probably yours," Alex said. He and Nicky had drawn their own pumpkins, Alex had also drawn one for Piper, but they'd agreed to get the boys done first. "I think I can get them all done tonight, but if not you can take yours and Andre's to your place and I can do mine and Piper's tomorrow."

"It's not that late," Nicky said. "You've got time."

Alex glanced over at him. "You two staying for dinner?"

"I was thinking we would," Nicky said. He turned his head a bit so he was looking at Alex more fully. "Do you mind?"

"No," Alex said, shaking his head a bit. He checked that the boys were occupied with their game before he leaned forward to catch Nicky's lips. Nicky hummed quietly before leaning into the kiss. When they pulled apart, Alex said, "I want you here."

Another smile settled on Nicky's lips. He leaned forward, pressing a soft peck against Alex's lips in return. "I want to be here."

* * *

 

                          

* * *

 

"This is Halloween, this is Halloween!" Michael sang as he walked down the street, swinging his candy bag as he went.

"Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!" Tom echoed, voice rising and falling in a mock of the song. Andre sang with Tom, but he was a little less sure about the words. Michael and Tom had watched The Nightmare Before Christmas multiple times every Halloween and Christmas for years now. Nicky had seen the movie when he was younger, but he'd never thought to show it to Andre so Andre had only seen the movie for the first time a few days ago.

Once again, Nicky and Alex were hanging back while the three boys walked together in front of them.

It was Halloween night and they were out trick-or-treating. Tom had ended up ditching his initial ninja idea and decided to be a firefighter instead. Along with his costume, he had a little stuffed dalmatian poking its head out of the basket he was collecting his candy in. Alex had been confused about his insistence about it, but it turned out that the local schools' fire-safety program involved an animated dalmatian. Michael was dressed as a zombie basketball player. He was wearing a white Wizards home jersey that had been slathered in fake blood. He had more than one of them so Alex hadn't minded letting him get one of them messy. Piper had been at the house earlier, giving all three boys a small care package of candy to start the night, and she'd taken the time to put some creative makeup on his face. Andre had gone with a Mario costume. He had a big, fluffy mustache attached to his upper lip. While Michael and Tom's candy buckets were pretty simple, Michael's a purple pumpkin and Tom's a green bucket with spiders painted on it, Andre's was shaped like Toad. Alex found it just a tad morbid considering it looked like someone had cut the top of the Mushroom Kingdom's residents head off, but the boys seemed to like it.

"Which way do you want to go, boys?" Nicky asked as they reached the end of the street.

The singing stopped, giving way to a thoughtful humming as they considered their options.

Andre spoke up after a moment, saying, "I think we should go that way." His words were accompanied by a pointed finger, showing them that he thought they should turn left and head up the street. Alex was a little bit surprised. Andre usually left decisions up to Michael and Tom. He felt himself smiling once the shock faded away, though. He knew that Andre let them make decisions because Michael and Tom usually had more opinions than they did, but it was nice to see that Andre was comfortable enough to be asserting himself as well. Andre added, "I think I saw one of my classmates down there, too. So maybe all of our friends are trick-or-treating there."

"That's a good plan!" Michael said. He twisted on his foot, turning his body in the direction Andre had pointed. "Let's go this way then!"

"Okay," Tom agreed. There was a moment of silence before he started singing, switching songs and taking the lead from Michael. "If there's something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call?"

Andre and Michael were quick to shout, "Ghostbusters!"

"If there's something weird and it don't look good, who you gonna call?"

This time Alex joined the boys as they shouted, "Ghostbusters!"

He heard Nicky laughing next to him, amused by the group of them.

The next time the line came up, Alex nudged Nicky with his elbow until he joined in as well. 

* * *

Alex sunk down into the loveseat in the living room.

It was late. Nicky had taken Andre home, Andre was wiped from excitement of the night, and his boys had already changed into their pajamas. Michael had on a pair of royal purple pajama pants covered in blacks along with an old batman tee-shirt. Tom was wearing black pajama pants and a long-sleeved black shirt, a skeleton printed on them. Alex had turned the TV on, ending up in the middle of one of Disney's Halloween movies, but the boys were more concerned with their negotiations.

"I don't like these," Michael said, pointing to a pile of chocolate balls wrapped in foil that made them look like eyeballs. It wasn't so much that he didn't like the chocolate, but that he didn't like the caramel inside of them. "I'll give you them in exchange for two of your suckers."

Tom pursed his lips, carefully considering Michael's offer. After a moment, he nodded his head. "Okay, but not the caramel apple pops or dum-dums."

"One dum-dum," Michael countered.

Tom looked down at the stack of suckers in front of him. Both of them had sorted their candy into piles based on what type of candy they had. "Okay, but not the lemon-lime or sour apple ones. Those are my favorite ones."

"Okay," Michael agreed. He shifted up onto his knees, leaning over to examine the suckers Tom had and decide which one he wanted. As he chose, Tom reached out and swiped the eyeball chocolate from Michael's side. Once they'd both settled down, Michael adding an orange flavored dum-dum and blue scorpion sucker to his pile, Michael said, "Okay, it's your turn."

As Tom hummed, eyes raking over the rest of Michael's candy, Alex said, "Did you two have fun tonight?"

"Yup," Tom said, nodding his head a bit. "We got loooooooooads of candy."

"I can see that," Alex said. Just incase they'd forgotten the rules, he added, "Don't forget that I'm taking it tonight to make sure you don't eat it all when your supposed to be asleep."

"Uggggh, Pops," Michael groaned. He looked away from Tom's candy, obviously having been planning his next offer, and at Alex. "We're not babies! We can keep our candy without eating all of it."

"Uh huh," Alex said, his disbelief evident in his words. Before either boy could argue that point further, he said, "You had fun with Andre?"

"Yeah," Michael said.

"We like Andre," Tom said.

"So you guys don't mind how much Andre and his dad have been around?"

"Nope," Tom said. "We always have lots of fun when Andre's here!"

Michael nodded. "Yeah! Andre's dad is really nice too. We like him. Not as much as we like Andre, but he's cool."

Tom wrinkled his nose as he said, "We don't like seeing you kiss though. That's gross."

"Oh yeaaaaaaaah," Michael agreed, dragging the word out. "Kissing is super gross."

"But," Tom said, before Alex could say anything, "you always look really happy after kissing Andre's dad so I guess it's okay."

Michael hummed for a minute before nodding again. "Yeah. I agree."

"Kisses are gross huh? I'll show you." Alex stood up, getting out of the chair and walking over to the boys.

Wrapping his arms around them, he pulled them both close to him and peppered pecks against their faces. The boys whined and groaned, squirming around in Alex's arms in an attempt to get away from him. Alex could help laughing at them.

It'd been a good Halloween, Alex decided as Tom whined about Alex's beard being too itchy. He hoped they had more like it.

* * *

 

                          

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hello everyone! How are you? I was really surprised that there were so few comments on the last chapter given that it was the date chapter. Did you guys hate it? Or did you like it so much you had no words?
> 
> 2) Originally this chapter was going to be half October, half November but it ended up being all October so the next one will be all November. I don't mind the change tbh. It'll be nice to develop the relationship a bit. 
> 
> 3) I realize this chapter might be a little dull for some people? But hopefully most of you enjoyed seeing them just like...being a family?


	8. People Have Done This Before, but Not Us

                          

* * *

 

As the credits rolled on the movie they'd been watching, Tom had picked Wall-E, Alex looked over at the couch.

It was the weekend so they'd agreed that the boys could stay up later and watch a second movie, but it seemed like that extra hour and a half had really knocked the three of them out.

Andre, Tom, and Michael were curled together in a heap. Tom was taking up a good portion of the couch. He had his back against the arm of the couch with his legs stretched out in front of him. One of his legs dangled off the couch, bent at the knee. Alex couldn't see Tom's other leg, but he was fairly certain it had slipped down behind the cushions. Andre had squeezed himself into the space between Tom's shins. He'd started the night out with his legs crossed under him, but now he was leaned back against the couch with his legs dangling down. Michael sat at Tom's feet, leaning against the side of the couch with his legs folded under him.

All three of the boys were awake, but judging by the way they were slumped it was pretty obvious they weren't going to be awake for much longer. Michael had spent the last half hour of the movie with his folded arms set on the arm of the couch and his head resting on top of them.

Alex looked away from the boys, looking over at Nicky.

Since the boys had taken the couch, Nicky had settled in the second armchair. At the beginning of the night, when they'd all settled down after dinner to watch a movie together, he'd been a little disgruntled that Nicky had ended up on the other side of the room. But he knew his sons well enough to know there was no point in trying to get them to move so he and Nicky could sit together.

Nicky had been looking at the boys as well, but when he looked away he caught Alex's eyes. He smiled a bit, "I think that last movie might've been a little too much."

"Nu-uh," Tom argued. Alex might've been inclined to believe him if his son's voice wasn't heavy and slow, making it clear how close to sleep he was.

Michael insisted, "We're wide awake."

Andre was so tired that all he managed was a soft, barely heard, "Yeah."

"Well, my apologies then," Nicky said, voice filled with mirth.

Alex looked back at the boys. They were all tangled together and they looked so comfortable. He didn't want the boys sleeping on the couch so he'd have to get them to at least get up and move to their bedroom, but he didn't want to disturb them too much. Looking at them, he didn't want to disturb Andre either. He'd always liked the youngest boy, but the more time he and Nicky spent together the more he cared about him.

"Nicky," Alex said, keeping his voice soft so he wouldn't draw the boys attention. He didn't think any of them were paying enough attention to him to get worked up if they heard the conversation. "Do you have any plans tomorrow morning?"

"No," he answered, shaking his head a bit.

"You and Andre want to stay over?" Alex asked. He gestured towards the boys with his head. "I don't want to move any of them too much. He can borrow some clothes and use Michael's bed."

"Michael won't need it?" Nicky said, instead of giving an immediate no. Alex shook his head. Tom and Michael had their own beds, but they slept with each other as much as they slept without each other. Especially in the cold months when they preferred to tangle together under warm blankets than sleep alone. They were young enough that Alex didn't see any problems with it. He figured he could leave it for a few more years and than see if he needed to put a rule in place. Nicky hummed a bit, glancing over at the boys again. Then he nodded, "Okay. We'll stay the night then."

Alex took a moment to feel pleased about that. He'd asked for the boys sake, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't happy to have Nicky staying as well.

Then he clapped his hands together.

It was enough to have all three boys jumping, stirring out of their sleepy states for a moment.

Knowing they were all a little bit more awake and paying attention, Alex said, "It's time to go put on pajamas and go to bed, boys. Andre's going to stay the night so one of you needs to pull out some pjs for him too."

* * *

Alex walked into his bedroom to find Nicky sitting on his bed, back against the headboard and long legs sprawled out in front of him. When Alex had left, checking up on the boys to make sure they were actually asleep and hadn't unexpectedly gotten a second wind of energy and ended up playing, Nicky had said something about getting ready to sleep. However, knowing that and actually seeing Nicky now where too very different things.

Nicky was laid out on Alex's bed. He wore a loose tee-shirt of Alex's from university. While they were about the same height, Alex's shoulders were broader and he'd been almost as big back than as he was now. Alex's shirt was stretched at the collar from years of being pulled on by little boys. Given that as well as the difference in size, the tee-shirt hung loosely on Nicky's frame and had slipped down his shoulder. The shirt wasn't very long, so it stopped right in the middle of Nicky's thighs and left the edge of his black briefs visible.

"Alex," Nicky said. Alex had been distracted by Nicky's thighs, pale and toned and almost never on display, but he looked up at the sound of his name. Nicky was watching him with his lips turned up in a soft smile and his blue eyes practically sparkling with glee. His voice was filled with amusement as he said, "You're staring."

"Ah," Alex said. He couldn't bring himself to feel bad about staring when Nicky didn't seem to find it an inconvenience. "Sorry."

"I'm not upset about it," Nicky said. He shifted until he was on his knees near the end of the bed. He reached out, grabbing the front of the shirt Alex was wearing and tugging him closer. Alex went easily, moving until his knees were bumping against the mattress. He leaned in, pressing a kiss against Alex's lips. Alex rested his hands on Nicky's hips, hiking the shirt up around Nicky's waist and pressing his thumbs against his hips. When they separated, Nicky didn't pull back very far. Alex could feel their lips brushing together as he said, "The boys are asleep?"

"Yeah," Alex answered, voice coming out rough and husky. His accent had thickened, the way it tended to do when his thoughts started getting too cloudy to catch it. "Andre didn't look like he had any trouble falling asleep."

"That's good." Nicky leaned forward, catching Alex's lips again. The kiss was longer this time and filled with a lot more passion. When they pulled apart again, he said, "I don't really want to talk about the kids."

"I'm starting to understand that," Alex said. He rubbed his thumb against Nicky's hip a bit, adding, "You know this isn't the reason why I asked you to stay over, right?"

"I'm aware," Nicky answered. "But you are a very attractive man and this relationship is moving slower than any relationship I had as a teenager."

Alex hummed. "We'd better fix that then."

"I agree," Nicky said.

His smile grew, going a little mischievous at the edges. He tightened his grasp on Alex's tee-shirt than let himself fall backwards. Alex let himself go with him, landing with his hands braced on either side of Nicky's head. Alex's legs had landed a little uncomfortably, so he shifted until he had one between Nicky's and the other braced to his left.

"Hello there," Alex greeted.

"Hello," Nicky returned. "Kiss me again."

It wasn't a request.

Alex had never been very good at taking orders, always more of a leader than a follower, but this was one that he didn't mind going with.

* * *

 

                          

* * *

 

"So I asked the boys if they were supposed to be opening the door and they said you gave them permission." Alex looked up from the pan he'd been stirring to see Nicky walking through the doorway that separated the dining room from the kitchen. He was wearing a pair of dark jeans with a off-white pullover hoodie. "Is that true or do you need to go talk to them?"

"You texted and told me you were almost here, so I told them they could answer," Alex said. "I told them to scream and shut the door in anyone else's face."

Nicky let out a soft laugh. "Sounds like a solid plan. Two eight year old boys screaming in your face would scare anyone off."

Alex hummed a bit, small smile on his lips. "Where'd the boys run off to?"

"To their bedroom, I think," Nicky said. He crossed the room, making his way over to Alex. "They said something about transformers? They're probably playing with their action figures after watching yesterdays episode."

When Nicky drew close enough, Alex turned his head to press a kiss against his lips. Nicky let out a pleased hummed, leaning in a little closer to turn the kiss into something more than the quick peck Alex had been intending. Alex was happy to go along with it. He was never opposed to kissing Nicky.

After they pulled apart Nicky stayed close to Alex, moving so he was leaning back against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest. He was just far enough to not be in the way as Alex moved around the various pots on the stove, but close enough that Alex could still reach out and touch him without much difficulty.

"It smells good in here," Nicky said.

"I'm glad. I was a little worried I'd cook something that Andre didn't like."

Nicky peered at the stove before saying, "I don't think there's anything he won't eat. There's a few things he hasn't had before, but he's not very picky."

"That's good. I'm glad I picked vegetables that he likes."

There was a quiet moment during which Nicky seemed to be considering something.

When he spoke again, he asked, "You learned how to do all of this from Tom's mother?"

Oh, Alex though. He knew that he'd mentioned Chloe when they were talking the other day, but Alex hadn't really been expecting Nicky to ask about her.

He wasn't over her, he never really would be, but in the past four years he'd moved past losing her and come to terms with the fact that she was gone. This time of year, with all of the holidays and family events, always had him missing her more than usual though.

"Yeah," Alex said, nodding a little bit.

Nicky hummed a bit. Then he asked, "Will you tell me about her?"

Alex glanced over at him. "You're sure you want to hear about her?"

"Yes. She's important to you and Tom," Nicky said. He shifted a bit, bumping their elbows together. "My relationship with Andre's mother wasn't serious. We were together, but she didn't have any plans to have children. Much less to have one with me. She had Andre because I asked her to go through with the pregnancy and paid most of the costs, but she was never in his life."

"Children don't need mothers," Alex said. "They just need someone that loves them. Andre's not missing anything by not having a mother. You've done a great job with him all by yourself."

"I know I have and I know they doesn't need mothers," Nicky answered. "But Tom did have one and he was very lucky to have had one. She existed and she's someone that both of you loved a lot. I care about you two so I want to know about the people and things you guys care about, even if those people aren't around anymore."

Alex fell quiet, trying to swallow down the emotion building in his chest.

After a moment, he said, "I met Chloe right before I finished graduate school."

"Yeah?" Nicky said. He bumped their elbows together again, the contact supporting. "How?"

"I'd spent too long in the library working on my thesis the night before, but I had to get to work and I was exhausted so I went to this little cafe near my apartment. I didn't notice her at first, because I was so tired but when I ordered a drink with eight shots of espresso in it someone started laughing at me. I looked over and there was this beautiful girl waiting for her own drink," Alex said. He closed his eyes, allowing himself a moment to imagine that day even though there was food cooking in front of him. "Back then, she had so much hair. Her entire face was surrounded by dark brown curls and her eyes were this warm coffee brown. She was already pregnant then, enough so that her belly curved a bit under her shirt, but I didn't care. I fell in love with her as soon as I saw her." He opened his eyes, smiling a bit as he looked over at Nicky. "Just like you."

"You're a sap," Nicky told him, though there was a happy smile on his face. He asked, "Already pregnant?"

"With Tom," Alex said. Nicky looked a little surprised at the information, so Alex explained, "The man Chloe was with before didn't want to be a father and he wasn't fit to be one anyway. Chloe told him about the baby and he told her he didn't want it. Chloe was going to raise him alone until I came in the picture. I'm on his birth certificate and I'm the only father he has." He gave Nicky a moment to think about that before he said, "It doesn't matter that I don't share blood with them. Tom and Michael are just as much my sons as Andre is yours."

"Of course they are," Nicky said, without so much as a moment of hesitation. The fact that he wasn't Tom's biological father wasn't something that many people knew, just his parents and his closest friends, and sharing something like that with Nicky had been big. The fact that Nicky had accepted it so easily only made Alex's affection for him grow. He requested, "Tell me more about her?"

"I asked her out before the barista had even finished making my coffee," Alex said.

Nicky let out a startled laugh, "Really?"

"Yes," Alex said, nodding a little bit. "She turned me down flat, but she said I could sit with her while she drank hers. She was drinking decaf because of Tom and she said that watching me drink all of my espresso would make her feel a little bit better about it."

They spent the rest of the time Alex was cooking talking about Chloe.

Alex had never realized how great it would be to share her with Nicky. He never realized how much it would mean to him that the man he was in love with now wanted to hear about the woman who had held Alex's heart in her hands for so long.

* * *

"And then Ezra was like-" Michael narrated as he lifted his fork. The handle was small, but somehow he managed to get both of his hands wrapped around the handle so he could wield it around like a lightsaber.

"Michael," Alex cut in, before Michael could start slashing through the air and toss his mashed potatoes all over the rest of them. "Not at the dinner table, please."

"But dad!" Tom whined. "Ezra was so cool in the last episode and you didn't get to watch it with us!"

"I know I missed the last episode," Alex said. He'd suffered through a lot of truly horrendous children's shows when the boys were younger, but now that they were getting older he didn't watch with them as often. He actually enjoyed the Star Wars cartoons, though, so he tried his best to watch the episodes with them. It was a small thing, but it was something all three of them could enjoy together. While they recorded the show and watched it later, they watched it at the same time every week. Piper had put the show on for the boys like usual and Alex hadn't ended up getting done with work until it had already ended. "But no jedis at the dinner table, please."

Identical pouts settled on Tom and Michael's lips.

"You have a real light saber, don't you? " Nicky said. Michael nodded a bit, looking suspicious. "You can use that to show your dad what happened if you wait until after dinner."

Tom and Michael exchanged a look, seeming to debate the merits of Nicky's suggestion without any words.

"Okay," Michael said at last. "That sounds fun."

Alex glanced over at Andre, trying to see how the youngest boy was fairing.

"Andre," he said, when he noticed what he was doing. Andre stopped pushing at the food on his plate, looking up at Alex. "Do you not like the sweet potatoes?"

Nicky looked over as well. He looked at Andre plate. He'd shoved his potatoes around until they were molded into a mushy mountain. "Oh. He's never had them before. I thought he'd like them since he likes potatoes..."

"It's okay," Alex assured, waving Nicky off a bit. He glanced at the other two boys before saying, "You know, Andre, Tom and Michael really like sweet potatoes but they don't like green beans very much."

"What?" Andre said. Andre was sitting across from Nicky with Michael directly next to him, and across from Alex, while Tom sat to Michael. He glanced down at the table at the other two boys. "Why not? They're so yummy! And your papa even adds bacon to them!"

"They're green," Michael said, wrinkling his nose.

"And gross," Tom added. "Bacon doesn't make them taste any better."

"It's a holiday today, so I think just this once we can make an exception about vegetables," Alex said. "So why don't you give me your plates? I'll split Andre's potatoes between Tom and Michael and Andre can have Tom and Michael's green beans."

"Yes!" Tom exclaimed, obviously pleased at not having to eat the green beans. He scooped his plate up, passing it across the table to Alex. Michael did the same, just as eagerly.

Andre hesitated for a moment. He looked over at Nicky, "Is it okay, papa?"

"Just this once," Nicky agreed, nodding a bit. He held a hand out for Andre's plate. "Give it here and we'll swap them out."

A bright grin came over Andre's lips. As he held out his plate, he said, "Thank you, papa! Thank you, Alex!"

"It's not a problem," Alex said.

He meant it.

It was never an inconvenience to do small things like this for his boys.

* * *

 

                          

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hello! I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! Thank you for all the kind comments and please continue to let me know what you think! 
> 
> 2) I'm not a huge fan of the middle text section, but I didn't want to change it either so. Let me know what you think. 
> 
> 3) Actually, not sure how I feel about this chapter as a whole. So comments on this one appreciated more than most! 
> 
> 4) I didn't want Alex to have a typical family because he's such an untypical person and he loves so much and so deeply. Hopefully the fact that his family isn't traditional doesn't make anyone love this story any less. 
> 
> 5) Michael's parents (referenced in the final text) are ocs. I don't want to use his actual parents.


	9. Losing Half the Sun Makes the Skies Gray

                          

* * *

"Michael, Tom," Alex said as he stepped into their bedroom.

None of the rooms in the house were small, but Alex had given the boys the bigger room when they'd moved in. It had made the most sense to him since there were two of them and a small army of action figures. The walls and ceiling were painted a dark, navy blue with space ships, stars, planets, and aliens painted all around them. The two beds were shoved into opposite corners with a wide window between them. Both of them had solid colored duvets, one a forest green and the other a deep red, with handmade quilts thrown over them. Alex's grandmother had made Tom's for him when he was born and Alex's mother had made Michael's since his grandmother had passed by the time Michael came into his life. Both beds were rumpled, but only one of them looked slept in. Matching shelving systems hung above both beds, filled with a collection of books and action figures. A toy chest rested under the window.

"Pops!" Michael exclaimed. He and Tom were sitting on the floor, playing with their Transformers action figures, but he looked away from their game and sent Alex a wide smile. "We didn't know you were home!"

"I just got here," Alex told him. Crossing the room, he crouched down next to the boys. Looking at the toys in their hands before glancing at the toy soldiers that had obviously been mowed down by their action figures. He said, "Aren't Optimums Prime and Megatron enemies?"

"Fighting each other is boring," Tom said. "It's more fun if we beat bad guys up together!"

Alex's chest filled with a rush of warmth, struck by how amazing his boys were and how wonderful they were. He was always struck by how much they cared for each other and the lengths they were willing to go through to protect each other.

Their love for each other only made things like this hurt more. Alex loved Michael and he hated being separated from his son, but what hurt even worse was how much it hurt Tom and Michael to be apart. Alex had never - and _would never_  - regret taking Michael in and caring for him like he had, but he regretted that his decision was one that caused his boys so much pain.

He took a deep breathe, steeling himself not only for the pain the words caused him but also for the fall out afterwards, before saying, "So, Michael's mom and dad are going to come get him next weekend so that they can spend Christmas with him." It wasn't the most tactful way to put it, he probably could've added a bit of lead up, but over the past few years Alex had learned that there was no tactful way to put it. It was better to just get it out there and over with.

The boys were quiet for a moment.

Then Michael said, "No. I don't want to go. I'm staying with you and Tommy."

"You see Tom and I all the time," Alex said. "Don't you wanna spend time with your mom and dad?"

"No," Michael said. He turned away from Alex, a frown on his face as he focused back on the toy in his hands.

Alex took a deep breath, steadying himself.

This entire situation always sucked, but this was one of the bits that he hated the most. The part when he had to listen to Michael tell him that he didn't want to leave them and then tell his son that what he wanted didn't want and he'd have to go anyway.

He loved Michael with every inch of his being and he wanted his son with him always, but he couldn't stop wishing that Lori and James had more interest in their son's life. They would all be a lot happier if Michael wasn't constantly torn away from the only family he'd ever known to spend a week with two people who rarely thought to call him, much less spend time with him. 

* * *

Next Saturday night found Alex lying on his bed. It was late, so he'd already stripped out of his clothes in favor of pajamas. He wore a pair of soft, plaid pajama pants and a loose tank top. It was one that the boys had picked on a vacation they'd taken one summer, covered in a tourist-y phrase and bright colors. One hand was holding his phone to his ear while his other arm was slung over his eyes.

"How are you feeling?" Nicky asked, his voice soft.

"Like the worst father on the planet," Alex said. The boys had been relatively subdued when Michael's parents had arrived that morning. Michael had even seemed a little happy to see them, hugging them. The problem had come after the boys had unwrapped their presents and Alex had finished talking to Lori and James. The second they'd gotten up to leave, Michael had dug his heels in. The crying, from both Michael and Tom, had been expected but it still broke Alex's heart. "I made them cry."

"This is not your fault. You didn't make them cry," Nicky said. "The only thing you did was give Michael a family that loves him instead of leaving him alone."

"Does any of that even matter when I keep taking that away from him?" Alex asked. "I tell him I love him, but then I just...I let them take him."

"Because if you didn't then you might not get to see him at all," Nicky dismissed. "And while he's probably upset right now, Michael knows you love him. You're a great dad, Alex. Neither of those boys are _ever_  going to seriously think that you don't love them."

"Sometimes I'm not entirely sure that's true. I do love them. So much. But....sometimes I think that's not obvious to them or that I'm not doing enough to prove that to them," Alex said. Sometimes, he thought about what he'd been like as a teenager. He'd been difficult, said things to his mother and father that he didn't mean because everything was confusing and it was too embarrassing to ask them. When the boys were teenagers, he wondered if the things they would shout at him would be more genuine. "Especially not when Lori and James show up and I make them feel every emotion that a parent is supposed to protect them from."

"And like I said, those feelings aren't _your_  fault. You aren't the one who's making them feel those things," Nicky said. "Michael's parents are the reason the boys are feeling terrible. Not you."

"It doesn't feel that way."

"I know," Nicky soothed.

The conversation was broken up by Alex's door creaking open.

Tom poked his head into the door, calling out, "Pops?" Alex could see that Tom was wearing his Power Rangers kigurumi. Tom and Michael both had one. Tom's was blue while Michael's was green.

"Hey buddy," Alex greeted. Tom showing up in his bedroom wasn't surprising. He didn't sleep with Alex the entire time Michael was gone, but he almost always spent that first night with Alex. When his and Michael's room felt too largely without the extra body and Tom hadn't quite adjusted to Michael not being by his side. Softer, he said to Nicky, "Hey, I'll call you back tomorrow okay?"

"Alright. Good night."

"Night," Alex answered.

When Alex had hung up his phone and set it aside, he turned his attention back to Tom. "What's up, Tom?"

Tom was quiet for a minute before he asked, "Can I sleep with you?" He fidgeted a bit before admitting, "Sleeping in our room without Michael feels weird. It's dark and lonely. I don't like it."

"Of course you can," Alex answered. He shifted, patting the bed next to him. "Come on up."

Tom didn't hesitate. He practically ran across the room and scrambled up the bed.

He curled up against Alex, seeming happy with simply not being alone any longer.

* * *

                          

* * *

 

"Hi Alex!" Andre chirped when Alex opened the door. He was wearing a pair of dark jeans with a puffy, pure black coat that had a fake fur hood. Despite the snow on the ground, Andre had the coat unzipped to show off the long-sleeved Spiderman shirt he had on under it.

Even with everything going on, Alex couldn't help smiling a bit when he saw him. His own boys were rays of sunshine and Andre was just an additional beam of it in his life. He greeted, "Hi Andre."

"Can I go play with Tom?" Andre asked. Before Alex could say anything else, he said, "Daddy already told me that Michael isn't here and that I shouldn't bring him up! And that Tom might be a little mean because of it, so if Tom gets really mean than I'm supposed to get up without saying anything and come let you know!"

A little surprised, Alex looked at Nicky. He stood behind Andre wearing a dark gray sweater with a light jeans and a black peacoat. While he'd left the coat undone, he had the collar flipped up to keep the wind from biting at his neck.

"I thought it might be better to explain things to him before we came over," Nicky said. "I'm sorry if you didn't want me to."

"No, it's okay," Alex dismissed with a shake of his head. He was surprised, but it wasn't necessarily a thing that Nicky had told Andre. He didn't relish in the idea of having to explain everything that was going on. "Thank you."

Nicky shook his head, dismissing it.

"Aleeeeeeeeex," Andre whined. Generally quieter and more reserved than his own boys, though not by much given that he was just like any other boy his age, Andre had only opened up like this a few weeks ago. It was new enough that Alex still found himself flattered that Andre trusted him enough to act naturally. " _Please_  can I go play with Tom?"

"Of course you can," Alex said. He opened the door more and moved out of Andre's way. Immediately the six year old darted inside. "He's in his bedroom."

"Okay! Thank you!"

"Andre!" Nicky called, before he could get very far. "Take your boots off first! And put your coat on the rack!"

There was shuffling as Andre came back into the front hall, not quite running but walking backwards very quickly. He hurried to kick his shoes off, uncaring that it left them still tied, and tossed his coat towards one of the hooks before taking off.

As Andre disappeared down the hallway, Nicky let out a loud sigh. "Sorry about him."

"No, it's fine," Alex dismissed, shaking his head a bit. Alex moved out of the way so that Nicky could come into the house. Nicky shut the door behind him after stepping inside. "I'm glad he's so excited to see Tom even when he knows that Tom might not be himself."

"They're in different hallways, but they have breaks and recess together so Andre's seen the boys at school a few times. He hasn't talked about it much, but it seems to me like he just wants to make Tom a little happier," Nicky said.

Alex hummed a bit. Andre was a good kid. It was nice to know that he wold have Tom and Michael's back, just like his boys had Andre's.

There was a quiet moment before Nicky asked, voice soft and caring, "How are you holding up?"

Alex thought about it for a minute. Then he reached out for Nicky's hand, slipping his fingers through Nicky's. "Not great, but you make it a little easier to deal with."

"I'm glad I can make you feel a little better" Nicky said. He gave Alex's hand a squeeze. "But he'll be back soon, Alex. It won't be much longer."

* * *

"Tom," Alex chided as he caught up to his son. "You can't run away from me when it's crowded like this."

The two of them were in the mall, searching for gifts for Michael and Andre. Alex already had all of his and Santa's gifts for the boys done, including the three or four things he'd gotten for Andre. However, they had a tradition where Tom and Michael each picked a gift out for each other as well. This year the boys had asked to include Andre and after talking to Nicky about it, he had agreed.

Alex had taken Michael to pick up what he wanted to get before his parents had picked him up. It'd taken some convincing to get Tom to separate from Michael when they knew they were going to be separated soon, but eventually he'd agreed to get lunch with Nicky and Andre while Michael and Alex went shopping.

"Sorry, pops," Tom apologized.

"No you're not, you little hellion," Alex said, because he knew his son well enough to know better. Tom caused a bit more trouble when Michael wasn't around. Acted out wasn't quite the right term to describe what Tom did. It wasn't like he was deliberately getting in trouble.His boys weren't stupid, but they were used to thinking things through together. Michael and Tom were so close, always together, and most of the decisions they made were run through both of their thought processes before they did something. So decisions Tom made without Michael tended to be half thought out and poorly planned. He didn't bother scolding Tom for running off. Instead, he squeezed Tom's hand in his own and asked, "Do you know what you want to go look?"

"Book store!"

"Okay," Alex said. Some people might have been surprised to hear 'book store' instead of 'toy store' when they were on the hunt for gifts for two children, but Alex knew his boys and he knew that Tom would know what he was talking about. "What are we going to the book store to find? Something for Michael or something for Andre?"

"Something for Michael," Tom said. He swung their joined hands as they walked. "Michael really likes sharks now."

"He does," Alex agreed.

"And when we went to borrow the shark book from the library again, Ms. Jasmine told us that we couldn't have it because someone else had put their name on the list for it," Tom explained. Alex hadn't been with them that day. Nicky had picked all three boys up from school since one of Piper's afternoon classes was running late. Alex had been surprised when Nicky told him the boys had asked to go to the library and he was using the spare key to pick the boys card up from the house. "Michael was really upset that we had to give the book back, but if we buy him his own shark book than he won't need the one from the library."

"That's true," Alex agreed. As they weaved through the crowd, Alex asked, "Do you know what you want to get for Andre?"

"Not yet," Tom said. "So after we get Michael's book, we should look around the other stores until I see something that he'll like a looooot!"

"That sounds like a good plan," Alex agreed. "Let's go to the book store then."

* * *

                          

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hi guys!! I'm sorry that this chapter was such a downer even though its a holiday chapter! Hopefully you enjoy it and hopefully everyone is enjoying the holidays (or at least, everyone that's American/celebrating them).
> 
> 2) Tom and Michael straddle this line of co-dependency in this fic? I like their relationship, but please let me know if it's bothering any of you because it's too much? 
> 
> 3) I feel like this fic has gotten shorter and shorter recently. How are you guys feeling about it?


	10. It's Time for Some Holiday Cheer

                        

* * *

 

Alex back in the armchair, watching as the boys tore into their gifts.

They'd all had a nice dinner together, but now the boys had been bathed, changed, and sat down to open their presents.

Most of the presents had been opened earlier, Andre had opened his on Christmas and Tom and Michael had opened theirs the day after once Michael was back from his parents, but there were still a few to be opened. There were the ones the boys had all gotten each other as well as the few that Alex had gotten for Andre and which Nicky had gotten for Tom and Michael.

Nicky and Alex had gotten gifts for each other as well, but they'd exchanged those at their lunch earlier that day.

Nicky had given Alex a new chain for his cross. He'd had the current one he was using since his mother had first given him the necklace, but after years of him chewing on it and small hands yanking at it, it wasn't in the best shape anymore. Alex had been talking about getting a new one for ages, but had never gotten around to it. Alex had given Nicky a new watch. It was a simple, elegant black leather band with face made of dark silver. It wasn't anything that Alex would have chosen for himself, but he knew that Nicky would prefer something understated to something flashy.

Alex bought the boys a new pair of pajamas every Christmas. This year he hadn't given the boys the pajamas with the rest of their presents, but had waited until now when Andre would be around. Tom had fuzzy black pajama pants covered in Santa hats with a red tee-shirt that said 'Santa's Little Helper.' Michael was wearing fuzzy red pants with horizontal rings of snowflakes and a long-sleeved white long shirt with a red snowflake in the center. For Andre, Alex had gotten a pair of fuzzy light blue pants with polar bears that wearing Santa hats with a white tee-shirt with a larger version of the polar bear in the center. All three of them had been pleased with what he'd chosen, but Andre had absolutely loved his.

"Dad!" Andre called out.

"What is it?" Nicky asked. While the boys were gathered in a circle on the floor, Nicky was perched on the arm of the chair Alex was sitting in.

"Look what Michael got me!" Andre exclaimed. Alex looked over to find Andre holding up the action figure that Michael had chosen for him. "It's Optimus Prime!" Before Nicky could respond, he reached down to grab the other package by him, "And Tom got me Starscream!"

"You got so many transformers this Christmas," Nicky observed. Alex knew that Nicky had bought Andre a few of his other character characters as well.

"I know! It's awesome!" Andre said, sounding a bit like someone had just given him the best news of his life. "I'm going to have them fight in a huuuuuuge battle! It'll be so much fun!"

"Sounds like it," Nicky agreed. "Michael, Tom, do you two like your gifts?"

"Yes!" Michael said. "I got so much cool shark stuff and cool pirate ship for all my sharks to attack!"

"The sharks can attack the pirate ship," Alex said, "but you have to make sure not to lose the instructions if you do that."

"I won't," Michael said. "Tom and I will put it together than we'll put the instructions and box in the closet."

"That's a good plan," Nicky said.

"Pops makes us put all of the Lego boxes in the closet," Tom said. "That way if we break something we still have the instructions to put back together."

"We learned our lesson when Tom broke a police car a few years ago," Alex said. "The boys got upset and then I got so distracted trying to calm them down that I left all the Legos on the floor and..."

"And now, I understand your caution."

* * *

Alex sat cross legged on the floor in the boys bedroom, his arms folded and resting on the bed as he watched Tom and Michael sleep. The two boys were curled up together on Tom's bed while Andre was in Michael's. All three of them were fast asleep.

Alex didn't generally spend his nights watching his sons' sleep, but somehow he ended up in this position every time Michael came back from spending time with his parents. It was never right away, but once the excitement of the holiday started waning Alex would go to make sure the boys were asleep and somehow end up sitting next to them for a few minutes.

He watched as Michael shifted in his sleep and Tom, even deep asleep and not in control of his own movements, shifted as well in order to keep close to him. There were a lot of reasons why Alex had never steered the boys away from their co-dependence - because there was really no harm in it at their age, because it made the boys happy to be with each other, because they made each other better in the best ways. But mostly, Alex didn't try to separate them because when they were together he knew they were safe. They couldn't protect each other from everything, but the two of them being together meant that they protected each other from so much more than Alex could have protected them from himself. There were things that boys didn't share with their parents, even at this age, but those things were things they could always share with each other. They protected not just each other's bodies, but also each other's minds and hearts.

He watched their tiny chests move with their breathes until the ache in his own chest eased. He'd watch them until he stopped thinking about Michael being gone and started thinking about the fact that Michael was here again. He'd watch until he could go back to thinking of Michael as his son and no one else's, until he could forget about this fucked up custody arrangement that ripped his son away from him twice a year. After Chloe had died, he'd spent months terrified that he was such a terrible father that someone was going to whisk in and take Tom away from him. Having some one take Michael away from him the way Lori and James did only reawakened that fear, made him think that one day they would think he'd done a terrible job and refuse to give him back. He watched until it was easier to remember that this was his life, until it was easier to remember that he'd somehow gotten lucky enough that two of the most amazing children on the planet called him dad and that no one could take that away from him.

Behind him, Alex heard the door creek.

"Sasha?" Nicky called, his voice soft and quiet. "Is everything okay in here?"

The diminutive was something new in their relationship. One night, they'd got talking about their homelands when they were in bed together and by the end of it Nicky had started occasionally calling him Sasha.

Alex liked it.

It reminded him of home. It reminded him of hearing the laugh in his father's voice when he called him Sasha and knowing that he wasn't in trouble, of the smell of his mother's kitchen and her greeting him with affection when he'd walk in, of his brothers when they were children chasing each other around the house.

It was a different kind of love in Nicky's usage of the name, but it was just as warm as the love he'd felt growing up.

"Everything's fine," Alex assured him. He allowed himself to stare at the boys half a second longer before shifting to stand up. Nicky didn't ask the question, but Alex knew he wanted to so he added an honest, "I was just reminding myself that they're here."

* * *

 

                         

* * *

 

Nicky gagged, pulling Alex's glass away from his mouth quickly. "Alex, that's disgusting. How are you drinking this?"

"Am Russian," Alex said, shrugging a bit. "Vodka has no effect on me."

They'd decided to get a late dinner before they went out to do anything. The place they had chosen was packed, but it was the type of place with dark lighting and an atmosphere that made conversation little quiet. There was a low hum of chatter around the restaurant, but nothing too loud or rambunctious.

They hadn't gotten their food yet, but they'd both ordered drinks to get the night started off. They weren't planning on going too crazy, Alex might have only been just past thirty but he wasn't exactly young enough to be drinking until five am anymore either, but Piper had agreed to watch the boys until the next morning so they'd decided that a little buzz wouldn't hurt either of them.

They were planning on eating than heading to a bar, somewhere they could watch a countdown on a TV while talking and drinking a bit more than they could when they were watching the boys. It was New Years eve so most of the bars would be packed, but Nicky knew one with a bit of an older crowd that probably wouldn't be too bad.

"I haven't taken biology since university, but I'm almost certain that being born Russian doesn't mean you were born with an iron stomach," Nicky told him. He set the glass on the table, sliding it back across to Alex.

"No," Alex said, voice low and amused. He reached for the glass, lifting it to his own lips as he answered, "But it does mean that when I was too young to drink legally, vodka was the easiest thing to find. You build a tolerance for it after a while."

Nicky watched as Alex tipped the glass back, taking a long drink from it. He was sitting with his elbow propped up on the table, leaning forward to rest his jaw in his palm. He'd rolled the sleeves of the button down he was wearing up to his elbows and Alex's eyes kept getting caught on the lines of his forearms. Nicky's arms were almost as nice as Nicky's thighs. "I can't believe you're actually going to drink that entire thing."

"I can't believe you're only drinking that," Alex said, tipping his glass towards Nicky's drink.

While Alex's drink had two types of vodka mixed in with a little bit of a non-alcoholic liquid, Nicky had ordered a drink with more soda in it than alcohol.

"It's early," Nicky said. His lips stretched up in a smile that was a little mischievous and sly. Nicky's smiles were generally a little reserved and calm, usually soft with affection, but Alex was learning that smiles like this usually didn't mean anything good for him. "I wouldn't want to drink too much too early and find myself too inebriated to enjoy the night properly."

"Nicky," Alex said, letting his voice drop into something a bit husky and deeper. He set his drink down so that he could lean across the table and into Nicky's space. Nicky's smile widened. "Are you suggesting that I'm going to let a few drinks keep me from touching you? Because I can assure you that's not going to be the case."

"We'll see," Nicky said, his voice light. He leaned forward, pressing a quick peck against Alex's lips. Afterwards, he leaned backwards and put his hand on Alex's chest to push him back. "Now sit down."

Alex did.

When he finished his drink, he ordered something with a little less vodka in it. 

* * *

"Oof!" Nicky huffed, the voice falling easily from his lips, as Alex shoved him against the wall. Alex had been careful with the movement though. While he'd put enough force behind it to move Nicky, he hadn't put an excessive amount behind it. At least, not enough for Nicky to pull away from him. Instead, Nicky kept his grip on Alex's shirt. "Careful!"

It was late, somewhere around one or two, and the two of them had just stumbled into Nicky's apartment. They'd had a good night together. They were nowhere near drunk, but both of them were loose and tipsy. They had had a fun night together, talking and laughing and generally enjoying each others company.

Things had taken a bit of a turn towards the end of the night, but Alex enjoyed spending this kind of time with Nicky.

"Sorry, sorry," Alex said, feeling a little breathless. They'd had sex before, but right now Alex was a little tipsy and drinking had always ended up with Alex getting even more amazed by how pretty some people were. And Nicky was... "Gorgeous."

"Thank you," Nicky said. His lips were turned up in a wide, pleased smile. His moved his hands so he could play with the collar of Alex's shirt, long fingers brushing against the sensitive skin there. Alex wasn't a teenager anymore, but there was something about the softness of Nicky's fingers and the gentleness of his touch that had a moan slipping out of Alex's mouth. Nicky's smile only widened, clearly pleased with having Alex so worked up when all of their clothes were still on. "You aren't so bad yourself."

"That's nice to know," Alex said. "I'm pretty fond of you, so it would suck if you didn't feel the same."

"I definitely feel the same," Nicky said. He pulled on Alex's collar a bit. Alex shifted closer to him, practically plastering himself against Nicky's body. "Kiss me."

"Good idea."

* * *

 

                          

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that you're enjoying whatever holiday you may be celebrating this time of year (if you have one)! 
> 
> 2) The last half of this is a little different from what I generally write int his fic, but honestly I wanted to explore a different aspect of Nicky and Ovi's relationship. It was fun to write :)


	11. Put in a Blender and Mix it all Up

                          

* * *

 

"Andre is going to be an excellent card shark when he's older," Alex remarked as he approached the table that Nicky was sitting at.

They were at the pizza place that Andre had chosen for his birthday party. The room that Nicky had rented had a few parents scattered across it, but all of the kids had already eaten their pizza and run out to play at the arcade. They weren't quite ready to cut into Andre's cake yet, wanting to give everyone a while to play since it was likely Andre would get preoccupied with his new toys once they did cake and presents, but Alex had gone out to make sure none of the children in their group were causing too much trouble.

Nicky leaned back when he heard Alex speaking and looked over at him. He raised an eyebrow. "Why is that?"

"He's out there conning the other children out of their tickets," Alex said. "He challenges them to games of ski ball and whoever wins gets to keep both sets of tickets."

"He's doing this to his guests?"

"No. Most of them seem to be helping him," Alex told him.

Nicky's eyebrows raised further. "My son is back there running an entire criminal operation?"

"If it makes you feel better, Tom and Michael are helping him," Alex said. As he passed Nicky to get to his seat, he tugged lightly on a strip of Nicky's hair. Nicky let out a small hum. As Alex pulled his chair out to sit back down, he said, "The two of them are finding kids to play and then Andre does the actual ski ball-ing."

"Why don't Michael and Tom just do it themselves?"

"Michael and Tom are terrible at ski ball," Alex said.

Nicky hummed again. "The boys are splitting the tickets?"

"I didn't get too close to the whole thing since I didn't want them to think they were in trouble," Nicky let out a soft laugh here, but Alex kept going, "but I think Andre's keeping his own tickets while Michael and Tom take his opponents."

"Well, I'm proud of their ingenuity, but this entire operation seems like a lot of work considering they could just play whatever they want to play instead of luring the other kids in."

"They've already run through the tokens we gave them," Alex said.

"They must be shy of whatever it is they want from the prize counter?"

Instead of confirming, Alex said, "They need about two hundred more in order to get Andre the transformers plushies."

"They have transformers plushies?" Nicky asked, sounding a bit like Alex had just given him the worst news of his life.

"Yes," Alex said. He laughed a little bit at Nicky's obvious distress. Tom and Michael were close, but they were their own people and they usually didn't fixate on the same things which meant that Alex usually didn't end up seeing the same thing a hundred times without a break. There had been a few times, though, when they latched onto the same thing with the same kind of fierce intensity that Andre had latched onto the Transformers cartoon so he understood Nicky's pain. "Don't worry though. I only let them buy one Transformer when we went shopping for him the other day."

"You are truly a knight in shining armor," Nicky remarked. He smiled at Alex as he added, "And I love you."

"Love enough to kiss?"

"Sure," Nicky agreed. He leaned in, slotting their lips together in a kiss that was soft and sweet. When he pulled away he asked, his smile softened at the edges, "Happy?"

"Very."

* * *

"Since we're celebrating Andre's birthday," Alex said, "maybe we should let him choose what we watch tonight."

After Andre's party the five of them had gone to Alex's place to have a small, family get together. The boys had spent most of the late afternoon playing with Andre's new toys, Michael and Tom agreeing to play games that would let Andre use them. The boys had already had one unhealthy meal since they'd stuffed themselves with pizza and cake earlier, but Alex and Nicky had been sure to cook vegetables that Andre liked and they didn't push him to eat too many of them.

Now, the group of them were gathered in the living room for to watch a movie. It had become a bit of a tradition for all of them to watch something together when Nicky and Andre were staying the night. It was time that everyone spent together and which made them feel like a cohesive family. Nicky and Andre stayed over a fair amount now, enough so that they didn't watch a movie every time they were there, but they still made sure to do this with the boys at least once a week.

Currently, Alex and Nicky were curled up together while the three boys were gathered together by the movie cabinet.

All three of them had taken a bath already since Alex had told them they could watch a second movie if they took baths first and changed into their pajamas. Michael was wearing a pair of [old Halloween pajamas](http://www.yourwdwstore.net/assets/images/1/10000/7000/400/400003331529.jpg) that consisted of a gray shirt with several skulls and the words "Morning's are a Nightmare" along with black shorts that were covered in white bones. Andre [wore](https://streamersllc.com/photos/LZTB-KID693B.JPG) a light blue long-sleeved shirt with a bear on it and the words "Bear Hug" with black pants covered in grayish-blue bear prints. Tom had [chosen](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4e/bf/f9/4ebff93bbc06b8793414b5a4e31d8e7d.jpg) a long-sleeved green shirt with a crocodile wearing a winter hat on it along with soft pants that were patterned to look like a crocodile's hide.

"It's my turn though," Tom said.

"It's Andre's birthday though," Alex reminded him.

"No, it's not," Tom argued. "Andre's birthday isn't until Monday."

Before Alex could argue with Tom about semantics, Nicky said, "You don't have to let Andre choose, Tom, but if you do then maybe Andre and Michael will let you choose on your birthday."

Tom was quiet for a moment before he looked over at Andre. "Pops said we could watch two movies tonight, so you can choose the first one and I'll choose the second." It meant that Michael would be the only one that didn't get a choice, but Alex wasn't too worried about that. Tom and Michael rarely picked a movie that the other didn't want to watch as well, so he didn't anticipate that Michael would kick up a fuss about it.

"Okay," Andre said. He was holding one of the Transformer plushies the boys had used their arcade to get him, Alex thought it's name might've been Bumblebee, tightly. He smiled Tom. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Tom said, though he was still focused on the shelf instead of Andre. "I think I'm going to pick Ice Age two. So you can pick anything other than that."

Andre hummed, focusing back on the shelf of movies before him. "Ratatouille maybe?"

* * *

                          

* * *

 

Alex was leaning down to take the cupcakes out of the oven when he heard Nicky saying, his voice soft and amused, "Michael, if you keep eating the chocolate we won't have any to make hearts out of."

Casting a brief look over his shoulder, Alex saw Nicky and the boys gathered at the island. Nicky had his elbow on the counter, his cheek resting on his hand and a small smile on his face as he looked over at Michael. Alex's younger son was leaned against the counter, stretching out so he could swirl his finger in the bowl of red molding chocolate that sat in front of him. They were planning on using the chocolate to create colored hearts that they would put on the cupcakes along with the frosting, but Michael had clearly decided he'd rather eat it now.

Not wanting to accidentally bump against the oven and burn himself, Alex turned his attention back towards it.

As he did, Michael said, "I think maybe the cupcakes will look better if we just decorate with sprinkles."

"No, you don't," Tom said. "You just want to eat the chocolate."

"Nu-uh," Michael objected.

"Michael," Nicky said. There was a slight warning in his tone, but mostly it was warm, affectionate, and amused. "Who exactly do you think you're fooling?"

"I'm not trying too fool anyone! I'm telling the truth, Nicky! I swear," Michael insisted.

"And the fact that you like the taste of the molding chocolate has nothing to do with your sudden change in heart?"

"Nope."

Grabbing the cupcake tray and setting it on the counter, Alex turned around to get a better look at the group gathered around the kitchen island. Tom and Andre were obviously sitting with Michael and Nicky. Nicky was sitting in the far left while Michael was all the way to the right. Tom was sitting next to Nicky and Andre had taken the seat between Tom and Michael. While Michael was focused on the chocolate, Tom and Andre had dumped what looked like several boxes of conversation hearts across the counter in front of them. They were each picking candy from the pile, popping them into their mouth absently.

Seeing all of them together had a warm feeling expanding in Alex's chest.

Things had been good for the last couple of months. It wasn't just Andre had that bonded with Tom and Michael, but his father as well. Alex had fallen in love with Nicky the first time he'd seen him, but none of that would have mattered if Nicky and the boys hadn't gotten along. They did, though, and that had just increased the more time they spent together.

Watching them all interacting now, it occurred to Alex just how much their two families had blended and how close they had grown to each other, how much they had grown into one big family.

And that filled Alex with an incredible amount of happiness because there wasn't a single person in the kitchen that he didn't hold an incredible amount of love and affection for. 

* * *

Alex was lounging on his bed with one of the cupcakes that they'd decorated earlier that evening when the door opened.

Looking away from his treat, he watched as Nicky crept back into the bedroom.

"The boys are all asleep?" Alex asked.

They always put the boys down together, but they took turns checking on them and making sure that they actually stayed in bed.

"Yes," Nicky agreed. They'd put the boys to bed almost two hours ago, so Nicky was already stripped down to a loose tee-shirt and his briefs. There was a familiar thrill of arousal that came when he saw Nicky like this, but recently there had always been a soft happy feeling that came with the idea of Nicky being dressed down and comfortable in Alex's house. "Though I think they got into a play fight because some of the stuffed animals have swapped beds."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Alex said. "I'm pretty sure the only time Michael and Tom don't sleep with each other is when they want to throw stuff at each other."

Nicky hummed a bit, but didn't respond otherwise. He just made his way across the room and climbed up onto the bed with Alex.

Alex looked back at the cupcake in his hand.

"Oh," Alex said, something occurring to him as he remembered why they'd made the treats. "We didn't make any plans for Saturday did we?"

"No," Nicky said. He settled onto the bed next to him. With Alex sitting up like he was, Nicky chose to rest his head on the pillows and curl in towards Alex. "It's Thursday night though. I don't think we're going to be making any sort of plans for Valentines Day on that short of notice."

"Shit," Alex swore. He looked down at Nicky. "I'm sorry. I got so caught up in work and the stuff for the boys that I totally forgot about the actual holiday."

"It's fine," Nicky dismissed. He'd had his eyes closed, looking as though he was content with falling asleep despite all of the lights being on, but now he opened one of them so he could look at Alex. "I would have said something about it if it bothered me. I'm happy to just steal some of the candy the boys get at the parties tomorrow and watch a movie."

Alex wouldn't mind just spending a day in with Nicky and the boys, but there was something about not celebrating their first Valentines together that didn't set exactly right with him. "Are you sure?"

Nicky hummed a bit. Then he said, "I wouldn't mind some Swedish chocolate or a thing of IKEA meatballs that Andre doesn't eat half, but I'm pretty okay with just the movie."

Laughter bubbled out of Alex's throat. "Swedish chocolates and IKEA meatballs it is then."

* * *

 

                          

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hi everyone! There's only a few more, so I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! 
> 
> 2) I put the links in the fic this time just to see how I felt about it?? Let me know if you found that easier or hated it. 
> 
> 3) Technically Tom is younger than Mike by several years, but in this fic their the same age and the only difference between them is their birthdays. Tom's birthday is in March while Mike isn't until May, so Mike's younger. 
> 
> 4) For the record I wasn't foreshadowing or anything in this chapter?? This fic has no climax or build up or anything. It's just fluff fluff fluff. 
> 
> 5) The chapter title might not make sense, but it's basically a reference to them becoming a more blended family.


	12. Life with Boys

                          

* * *

 

"Alright," Alex said, pushing himself up onto his feet. Andre, Tom, and Michael were standing in a loose circle in front of him. All three of them were dressed for school with their backpacks slung over their shoulders. Alex had just finished tying Andre's shoes for him, something the youngest of the boys knew how to do but seemed to find incredibly difficult in the morning. "Everyone have everything they need?"

"Yes," Tom said. Andre gave a small nod. Michael flashed two thumbs up, looking as though it had taken an incredible amount of energy just to lift his arms as far as he did.

Alex let out a small laugh as he looked at the three of them, but his amusement was overshadowed by the warm affection in his chest. Nicky had avoided sleeping over on school nights for a long time, but nowadays weekday sleepovers were becoming more and more common. The two of them took turns taking the boys to school on those days with today being one of Alex's turns. So Alex taking the boys to school wasn't exactly something brand new, but it was still something that filled him with happiness. Nicky felt comfortable staying over at Alex's house on weekdays and comfortable with trusting Alex to make sure that Andre got to school okay.

"If you don't get going the boys are going to be late."

Alex looked up from the boys to find Nicky standing at the end of the entry hall. He was shirtless, wearing only a pair of bright green Saint Patrick's Day pants that Alex had gotten as a gag gift several years ago. He had the strings pulled tight since the pants were big on him, but keeping them tight couldn't stop them from pooling around his legs. His hair was soft blonde birds nest. He was cradling a mug, no doubt filled with coffee, with both of his hands.

"I know, I know," Alex said, unable to stop the smile that spread over his lips. "We're going now, aren't we boys?"

"After hugs," Andre said. Despite how tired he was, he made his way down the hallway and wrapped his arms around Nicky's legs. "Bye papa."

"Bye Andre," Nicky said, shifting the coffee into one hand so he could wrap his arm around Andre's shoulders. "Have a good day at school."

As soon as Andre stepped back, Tom and Michael stepped close to Nicky.

The first time Nicky and Andre had stayed on a school night, Alex and Nicky had been surprised when all three boys took the time to say goodbye to whoever wasn't taking them. Now it was a normal part of their mornings, though one that never failed to turn Alex into a puddle of affectionate goo.

"Bye Nicky!" Tom said as he hugged Nicky. Michael pressed himself up against the two of them, squeezing himself into the hug.

"Bye Tom," Nicky said, wrapping one arm around Tom. He did his best to shift so he could wrap Michael in the hug as well despite also working to balance his coffee cup far enough away that he didn't need to worry about it splashing either of them. "Bye Michael." Michael didn't say anything, just made a soft sound against Nicky's leg. Nicky let out a soft chuckle before pulling away, ruffling Michael's hair as he did. "Have a good day boys."

"Everyone done saying bye to Nicky?" Alex asked. The boys made noises of agreement, walking away from Nicky and towards the door now that they'd gotten their goodbye hugs. He pulled open the door, gesturing outside. "Then out to the car, ducklings."

As the boys started filing out, Alex looked over at Nicky. "Breakfast after I drop them off?"

Nicky hummed in thought before nodding, "Sure. It won't kill me to go into work a little later."

"Not fair," Michael said, speaking for the first time that morning. "I want to go out to breakfast."

"This weekend we'll go out for pancakes," Alex told him, patting Michael on the shoulder. "But for now you are going to school."

He let out a little dissatisfied huff, "Pancakes would be better."

* * *

"Can we get hot dogs?" Tom asked.

"And nachos!" Michael added.

"Yes!" Tom agreed. "And popcorn? And pretzels!"

"I want a frozen lemonade," Andre said.

"You can each choose one thing to get," Nicky said. The group of them were making there way down the stairs at the Capital One Arena. Nicky was leading the boys while Alex walked behind them, keeping an eye on them and making sure none of them ran off for whatever reason. Since they both had prominent positions working for the Wizards, they both had family seats reserved. They rarely took advantage of the seats, though, since the boys were more interested in hockey and baseball than basketball and the two of them spent so much time cleaning up the messes of the team, Alex dealing with all the stupid injuries they collected and Nicky with all the shit their players stirred on social media, that they didn't want to deal with the team instead of spending time with their sons. "But no more. We're going to dinner after the game, remember?"

"We could skip dinner," Tom suggested. Alex couldn't help the laugh that fell from his lips. "And we could eat lots of food now instead!"

"No," Nicky answered. He didn't even bother to look back at the boys, still focusing on walking ahead. "You want to get tall like the players, don't you?"

"Yes," Michael said.

"Then we'll have to go to dinner for you can get some vegetables," Nicky said. "Right. Alex?"

The boys, all three of them, looked over their shoulders at Alex.

"He's right," Alex said. "Jason Smith eats his vegetables everyday."

Andre's eyes went wide. "If I eat my vegetables I'm going to grow _that_ tall?"

"Absolutely," Alex said. It wasn't that big of a lie. There was a very low chance of Andre reaching seven feet, but Nicky was only a few inches than Alex so he figured Andre had a pretty good chance of getting to at least six feet. He'd almost definitely end up taller than most of his peers. "Michael and Tom will too as long as they eat more spinach."

He watched as Michael and Tom exchanged a look.

Then Tom said, "We're okay with being short as long as we don't have to eat spinach."

Alex really didn't know what else he'd been expecting them to say.

"You don't have to eat spinach. Carrots and potatoes will work just as well," Nicky said. He looked to his left before glancing at the tickets in his hand. "Our seats are right here." He took a step past the row he'd indicated, gesturing for the boys to go in front of him. "Eight, nine, and ten."

"Okay!" Tom said, leading the boys down the aisle. As he went, he asked, "Andre, do you want to sit by Michael and me or by your dad?"

"I'll sit by you and Michael," Andre said.

"I'll sit by Nicky then," Michael said.

As the boys shuffled down, Alex gestured for Nicky to go next. "You heard Michael. He's sitting by you apparently."

* * *

                          

* * *

 

"You decided he wasn't getting a big present, right?" Nicky asked.

"Yes," Alex said. The two of them had just walked through the entrance of the toy shop. They were shopping for Tom's birthday gifts. The boys had been left with Piper, who had agreed to take care of the boys a few hours longer than usual, so that Michael and Andre wouldn't know what Tom was getting. Nicky was going to take Michael and Andre shopping that weekend while Alex took Tom to lunch. All three of the boys would know what was going on, because it was nearly impossible to separate Michael and Tom without telling them explicitly why they were being separated, but Michael knew better than to tell Tom what he had gotten him. Alex was sure that Andre wouldn't spill the beans easily either. "He got eight tickets to Six Flags. He doesn't need anything else too expensive."

Nicky hummed a little bit. "I was thinking about getting him a new track for his cars."

"He'd like that," Alex said.

"I'm just a little worried it's going to end up with him and Michael trying to get more of their cars to fly into the walls."

"The walls are already damaged," Alex said. The walls in Michael and Tom's room were a mess of old slime that he hadn't been able to scratch off and nicks from the boys throwing things at them. There was a dent in the wall behind the door from a time when Alex had thrown the door open a little too hard, he'd had the boys slung over his shoulders and giggling wildly, and slammed the doorknob into it. "A few more hot wheels flying into them isn't going to be that big of a deal."

"I'll see what kinds they have then," Nicky said. He'd been looking at the shelves around them as they walked through the store, but now he glanced over at Alex. "Do you know what you want to get him?"

"Tom and Michael have both been asking for skateboards," Alex said.

Nicky hummed a bit, "Is Tom going to be okay with Michael getting a gift on his birthday?"

"Yes," Alex said. He knew Nicky wouldn't react negatively to Alex's explanation, not when he had his own experiences with the boys and knew how important the two of them were to each other. The only people who thought the boy's codependency was something terrible were people who hadn't been around them long enough to know how much it meant to them. So Alex explained, "Whenever they ask for presents like that, I buy it for both of them. If I only bought a skateboard for Tom, then he would just end up sharing it with Michael or not using it until May when Michael gets one for his own birthday. They're happier if they share their birthdays."

"Ah, that makes sense," Nicky said, nodding a little bit in understanding. "If that's the case than I think skateboards are a good gift. Helmets and pads too?"

"Yes," Alex said. He thought about how many times they would end up at the hospital over the next few months if he let Tom and Michael try learning to skate without pads and helmets. "Absolutely yes."

* * *

"Tea cups, tea cups, tea cups," Andre chanted as he skipped across the pavement. He took a quick look at each of the tea cups attached to the ride as he went past them, searching for the best one. Alex followed behind him, walking with a wide smile on his face. "Tea cups, tea cups, tea cups."

It was the weekend before Tom's birthday, the weekend that Alex had agreed to take Tom and a few of the boys friends to Six Flags America.

Everyone at the park - the five members of Alex's family along with three other boys that Tom and Michael were friends with - had spent the morning together. Now that it was afternoon, though, older boys had wanted to ride a few of the more intense attractions. Andre had rode a few at the start of the afternoon, but generally he was just a little too short to ride what the other boys wanted to.

Initially Alex had been riding with the older boys while Nicky took Andre to some of the rides in the area directed at younger kids. Despite all of Nicky's complaints leading up to the trip, though, he had come to take over for Alex after three or so rides. When Alex had raised an eyebrow at him, Nicky had just shoved at Alex's arm and told him that he'd take a turn watching the hellions so Alex could have a break.

Alex wouldn't have minded spending the entire day watching the older boys, he wouldn't have agreed to bring them if he did, but it was nice to have a break and to spend some time with Andre.

"This one, Alex!" Andre insisted, coming to a stop in front of a red and white tea cup.

"If that's the one you want," Alex agreed, finding his smile widening at Andre's enthusiasm.

Andre climbed into the tea cup, setting himself right against the edge. Alex climbed in after him, settling himself next to Andre. He highly doubted anything was going to happen, but there was something comforting about having Andre right next to him just in case something did happen.

"Can we ride the swings after this?" Andre asked, looking over at Alex.

Alex hummed, looking over his shoulder to find the man running the ride had finished letting people in and was going around to check that all of the gates on the tea cups had been shut properly. "Why don't we go find your dad and the boys instead? Michael and Tom love the swings. They'll probably want to ride with you."

"Okay," Andre agreed.

"Are you hungry?" Alex asked, looking back at Andre.

He hummed a little bit before nodding, "A little bit!"

"How about we take a break from the rides after the swings and grab some food?"

"Can we find some place with chicken tenders?" Andre asked. "And french fries?"

"Sure," Alex agreed. There was no way they were getting the boys anything healthy to eat at an amusement park and chicken tenders were a lot healthier than a fried corn dog or something equally unhealthy. "Chicken tenders and fries sounds like a great lunch."

* * *

                          

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hello everyone! How are you? I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!
> 
> 2) Guess who doesn't know shit about basketball and arbitrarily picked for Nicky and Alex to work for the Wizards and now regrets it because she did way too much research for the second section of this chapter!!!


	13. I'm Where I'm Meant To Be

                          

* * *

 

"Hey." Alex was leaning against the side of the restaurant, looking down at his phone as he texted with TJ about the preliminary exams of their latest player injury. When he heard Nicky's voice, though, he looked away from the screen and in the direction he'd heard it from. Nicky was making his way through the last section of the parking lot, approaching Alex. Having come from his office, Nicky was wearing a pair of black slacks and a light blue button up. With Spring in full effect and the weather pleasantly warm, Nicky had the sleeves of his button up rolled up above his elbow and an extra button undone. He must have been driving with the windows down because his hair was a mess of windswept blonde curls. All in all, it was a combination that punched Alex straight in the gut and made his mouth run dry. "I'm sorry I'm late. You haven't been waiting long have you?"

"No, I just got here," Alex said. It wasn't strictly speaking true, but he hadn't really been worried about the five minutes he'd waited. "You get caught at work?"

"No," Nicky said with a light shake of his head. "I caught traffic."

Alex hummed a little bit. "Hopefully it'll clear out before you head back."

"That would be great," Nicky agreed. "Though I wouldn't mind being a little late back and missing whatever shitstorm is about to hit."

"Someone do something they not supposed to?" Alex asked.

"Not yet, but considering how long it's been since one of them gave me a heart attack I'm sure there's someone considering something stupid," Nicky said.

He was drawing closer to Alex now, stepping up onto the sidewalk Alex was on. Some of the tension drained out of his shoulders as he stepped into Alex's space. It was barely noticeable, but Alex saw it and a small sunburst of pride expanded in his chest. He liked being a safe place for Nicky, liked being someone that Nicky could relax with and enjoy spending time with even when work had him worked up.

Nicky stepped close, pushing himself into Alex's space. Alex allowed the intrusion without so much of a whispered thought to step back. Having Nicky close to him was infinitely better than having Nicky further away.

"Hello," Alex greeted, a smile settling over his lips. He felt warm, not because of the weather but because his love for Nicky was something warm that had become so much a part of him that it seemed built into his very bones. "You want something?"

"Yes," Nicky answered.

He didn't give Alex time to think of a response, just leaned in and slotted their lips together.

Alex was always happy to kiss Nicky, so he accepted the kiss without much fanfare.

When Nicky pulled away, he reached down for Alex's hand and twisted their fingers together.

"Come on," he said, stepping further away. Alex let himself be pulled along, knowing that there was a smile on his face that was more suited for a teenager than someone his age. "Let's go eat before our lunch breaks are up."

* * *

"Pops!" Alex had been crouched down looking at the math test Andre had been brandishing when he came out of the school, but now he looked away from Andre to find Tom and Michael making their way through the crowd of parents, teachers, and students gathered in front of the school. They had their hands wrapped around the straps of their backpacks as they ran towards him, grins on both of their faces. Over the top of their heads, Alex caught the eye of their teacher, mouth open to yell at the boys for running off, and flashed her a small smile. Tom's eyes went moved to Alex's left and then he added, "And Nicky too!"

Nicky and Alex picking the boys up from school together wasn't really unusual, but they had both been swept up in work the past few weeks. It had become pretty common for one of them to ask the other to grab all three boys or for Alex to ask Piper if she wouldn't mind picking the boys up instead of having one of them drop the boys off with her.

Today both of them had managed not only to find the time to pick the boys up, but too get out of work completely so that all of them could spend the afternoon together.

Nicky had his hand on Andre's head, having been ruffling his son's hair, but he shifted his attention away from his son and onto Tom and Michael. The soft smile he'd directed at Andre, affectionate and proud, didn't falter. "Hi boys. How was school?"

"Fun!" Michael said. "We made batteries out of potatoes."

"It was way more fun than eating potatoes," Tom added.

"I'm sure," Nicky agreed. "Have you had enough of potatoes for the day? Or do you think you might want some french fries?"

"We're getting french fries?" Andre asked, looking between the two adults for confirmation.

"Your papa and I were thinking of treating you guys to McDonalds," Alex said.

"I want McDonalds," Andre said. He looked over at Tom and Michael. "You guys do too, right? You aren't sick of potatoes right?"

"I'm a little sick of potatoes," Tom said. Andre looked absolutely horrified for a moment, but before he could object Tom added,"But french fries don't count."

Michael nodded his agreement. He said, "They don't taste gross like potatoes do."

"Then I guess we're going to McDonalds," Nicky said. All three boys let out loud, happy whoops. Nicky made a sweeping gesture in the direction of the parking lot. "To the car then, boys."

The boys were eager to comply. They walked in the direction Nicky had indicated, so close together that all three of them were shoulder to shoulder. They were already talking about toys were in the Happy Meals, discussing which ones each of them wanted. Michael was trying to convince the others to give him a certain toy if they got it.

Alex followed after them, keeping one eye on the traffic in the parking lot and one eye on the boys. A small smile spread over Alex's lips. It wasn't like he was that excited to eat at McDonalds, he didn't mind it but fast food definitely wasn't in his top ten favorite foods or anything, but he liked seeing the boys happy even if it was over something so silly.

* * *

                          

* * *

 

Alex watched as Tom ran off ahead of him, weaving through the graveyard towards Chloe's. He was holding the flowers that they'd bought her in his hand. Tom had chosen a bouquet of yellows and whites that he said reminded him of her. When he'd said that, Alex had had a moment of sad contemplation where he wondered if Tom really remembered Chloe at all or if white and yellow reminded him of her because Tom had a picture of her in a white sunflower-patterned dress in his nightstand.

"I found it," Tom called.

Alex glanced around to make sure they were in the right area before nodding, "Yeah. Good job, buddy."

"I told you I could find Mama's grave by myself," Tom said.

"You were right," Alex agreed. He thought about how long it had been since they had come by. Far longer than usual. They had both come by from Chloe's birthday, but that was in November. Alex usually came by himself for his and Chloe's anniversary, but that wasn't for another month. It didn't sit well with him that it had been so long. He made a mental note to visit more often. Moving on with Nicky was nice and he loved him, but Alex didn't want his relationship with Nicky to keep him from remembering Chloe the way she deserved. "I'm sure Mama is happy that you remembered."

"I hope so!" Tom looked down at the grave before looking back at Alex, "Pops, there are flowers in the vase already. Where do I put ours?"

"Your grandma and grandpa were probably here already," Alex observed. As he drew closer and walked to the other side of the stone, he saw the flowers that Tom was talking about. It was a bright bouquet of pinks and purples, filled with soft-petaled flowers. He hummed a bit before saying, "Why don't we take half of these out and put half of ours in with them? Then we can set the rest in front of the stone."

"Okay," Tom agreed. He crouched down in front of the stone, tipping forward so he could grab them.

"Be careful," Alex said. He lowered himself to the ground, sitting next to Tom with his legs folded under him.Tom had set the bouquet they'd bought on the ground so that his hands were free to separate the others, so Alex picked them up and set them in his lap until Tom was ready for them. "Grandma and grandpa might have bought flowers with thorns. Mama wouldn't want you to hurt yourself."

"I will be," Tom said. He pulled half of the flowers in the vase out, setting them gently in front of the stone, before turning to Alex. "Can I have ours now?"

"Yes." Alex took the flowers in his lap out of the wrapping they were in. He'd made sure that they bought flowers without thorns so that Tom could handle them without worrying, so he passed them over to Tom without worry. "Here you go."

He watched as Tom finished setting up the flowers before rocking backwards. He looked over at Alex. "Now we talk to Mama?"

"Yes," Alex agreed.

Tom nodded. He settled down, going from his heels to sitting with his legs crossed like Alex. Once he was settled, he started, "Hi Mama. I'm nine now! Pops took me to the amusement park for my birthday and...." Alex allowed himself to lean backwards, closing his eyes as he listened to Tom tell Chloe about his birthday.

He loved the life he had now, but there was part of Alex that wished Tom didn't have to sit here telling this story, part of him that wished Chloe had been there on Tom's birthday with him. 

* * *

"We're home," Alex called as he pushed open the door.

"We're home!" Tom echoed.

"Welcome back!" responded a chorus of voices.

Tom went to dart towards the living room, but Alex reached out and put his hand on his shoulder before he could run off. He said, "Shoes off first, kiddo. You've been running around in dirt."

"Sorry, pops." Tom slipped out of his shoes, using his toes to push the heels off instead of taking them off properly, then craned his head back to look at Alex. "Can I go now?"

"Go ahead," Alex agreed, letting his grip on Tom loosen. The boy darted down the entry hallway immediately, taking off to join the others. Alex took the time to take his own shoes off and kick Tom's to the side so they wouldn't be tripped over before following him.

When he reached the living room, he found Andre, Nicky, and Michael were sitting on the couch together. Tom was climbing up with them, wedging himself between Michael and the arm of the couch even though there was plenty of room. There was a movie playing on the TV, Alex thought it might have been Happy Feet but the boys had been into Surf's Up recently so it was possible he was just making assumptions based off the presence of penguins, though everyone seemed to be looking at Tom instead of the movie now.

Alex stopped in the doorway, taking a moment to just watch them.

It was true that sometimes he wished that Chloe was still around. He would probably always feel that way. They had a son together. It was natural for Alex to wish that Chloe had lived long enough to see Tom grow.

But this was Alex's family now - Nicky and their three ridiculously rambunctious sons - and Alex wouldn't have traded them for the entire world.

"Alex." Nicky's voice roused Alex out of his thoughts. Things had settled down in the few seconds that Alex had been spacing out, all three of the boys focusing on the TV and watching the movie. Nicky was watching Alex with a soft, thoughtful expression. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," Alex said. He pushed himself off of the doorway, a smile settling over his lips, and began to make his way across the room. "What are we watching?"

"Surf's Up," Nicky told him.

"I thought it was Happy Feet," Alex admitted.

"Alex!" Andre said. He turned away from the movie, fixing Alex with a horrified look. "The penguins are all different! They're completely different types! They don't even look anything like each other!"

Alex wondered, briefly, if Andre's horror meant they were moving out of the Transformers phase and into a penguin stage. If that ended up happening he imagined the combination of Michael's things for sharks and Andre's possible thing for penguins would end up in a lot of Aquarium trips. That wouldn't be too bad, though.

"I'm sorry, Andre," Alex said. He settled down on the couch next to Andre, putting the youngest of their boys between him and Nicky. "I don't know what types of Penguins they are. Do you?"

"Yes!"

* * *

 

                          

* * *

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hello everyone! How are you? I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I'm sorry it took me so long to get out. I've been in a busy part of the school season and I got distracted by other things I was writing.


	14. Home is Wherever I'm With You

                          

* * *

 

"Sorry, sorry," Alex said, flashing apologetic smiles as he wiggled his way across the gymnasium bleachers.

Nicky had his head turned down, looking through the bright blue program in his hands, but he must have heard Alex coming because he reached out to grab his sweatshirt from the seat next to him and pulled it into his lap. It opened up space next to him for Alex to sit down, though he was so big that he still found himself thigh-to-thigh and shoulder-to-shoulder with Nicky and the woman on his other side.

Alex gave the woman an apologetic smile before giving Nicky his attention.

"Hello," Alex greeted, leaning over to press his lips to Nicky's cheek since he was still looking at the program. "Thank you for getting us seats. Sorry I was late."

"You aren't late," Nicky pointed out. "It hasn't started yet."

"Yes, but I was meant to be here twenty minutes ago."

Nicky shrugged, "Things happen." He closed the pamphlet, giving Alex his attention instead. "Did the boys get to class okay?"

"Yeah," Alex said. "I dropped them off at the classroom and explained that we got caught by an accident on the highway. She didn't seem happy that they were late, but she understood."

"You know you get caught in traffic more than anyone else I know," Nicky said. "Maybe it's karma for all of the illegal driving you do."

"I drive fine."

"You think speed limits are suggestions."

"They are," Alex insisted, even though this was an argument they'd been having since the first time Nicky had been in a car with him. "They tell you what government thinks is the safe speed. If I can safely drive faster than it, then don't see why I should have to slow down."

Nicky hummed, though there was a note of dismissal in it. Alex let the conversation drop without much fuss, knowing that at some point this would probably end up coming up again and their was no point to _really_  arguing about it.

"What Andre's grade singing?" Alex asked instead. The school concert's theme was "Music Through the Ages," so each grade had been assigned a decade and would be singing three songs that had come out during that time. It wasn't going to sound great given that there were over a hundred students in each class, but it wouldn't be so bad that Alex wouldn't sit here and support his and Nicky's boys.

"The nineties," Nicky said. "One of their songs is the macarena."

"Fun," Alex said. He added, "Tom and Michael are doing the sixties. All Beatles songs."

"Really?" Nicky said. "I don't have a problem with it and I know you don't have a problem with it, but the school doesn't think _someone_  might object to their kids singing about drugs?"

"They not singing Lucy in the Sky," Alex dismissed. "They singing things like, 'I want to hold your hand.'"

"Well, that's certainly a better song choice," Nicky said.

"Very sweet," Alex agreed. "Much better than LSD."

* * *

Alex followed behind Nicky as they pushed their way into Andre's classroom.

Each of the classes were having a sort of art exhibition after the concert where the parents could look at what the kids had been making as they picked their children up. Alex and Nicky had decided to grab Andre first, in part because they knew that most of the other parents with multiple children would grab their younger children first as well so there would be plenty of kids in Michael and Tom's classroom for them to play with they were getting Andre. Even if every kid in Tom and Michael's class was an only child, the boys would still have each other to play with while they waited.

There was so much going on in the room, too many parents cramped into one room with too many first graders, that most of the conversation happening in the room was just background noise to Alex.

That was until he heard Andre voice calling out, "Papa! Alex!"

Alex barely had time to figure out where Andre was before he felt a small body slam into his legs.

"Hello, Andre," Alex said, grinning as he looked down at the boy.

"Hi Alex!" Andre said, smiling wildly as he looked up at Alex. His arms were wrapped around Alex's knees, holding tightly. "Did you and papa like the concert?"

"I did," Alex said. He looked over at Nicky. "Did you?"

"Yes," Nicky agreed. He reached out, resting a hand on Andre's head and ruffling his head. "It was very good. I'm very proud of you."

Andre's grin spread incredibly wider. "You guys should come to my desk so you can see what I made you in art class!"

"You're going to have to let go of me for that," Alex pouted out.

Andre scrunched his nose unhappily, but finally let go of his grip on Alex's legs. He'd been expecting Andre to grab Nicky's, but instead he reached for Alex's. It was unexpected, but it wasn't unwelcome so Alex just shifted his grip so he was holding onto Andre properly and let himself be tugged through the room with the knowledge that Nicky was following them.

"What did you make?" Alex asked. Andre's classroom was set up so that there were three tables made out of six desks pushed together. Andre was pulling Alex towards the table that was furthest from the door he and Nicky had come in, three of the seats were right under a large window.

"We're learning pottery, so I made papa a mug," Andre said. "And I made a little pot for you!"

"You made something for me too?"

Alex thought about the little clay pinch pots that he had from when Tom and Michael had been in first grade. They were vaguely deformed things covered in a mess of glossy paint. They were a little ugly, but Alex loved them because he appreciated how much effort the boys had put into making them.   
  
Alex kept both of them on his nightstand, using them to dump change and his keys in after a long night.

"Yup," Andre said. "Everyone else made something for their mom and their dad, but I told Mrs. Johnson that I didn't have a mom and dad. I have a papa and a Alex, so she let me make my second one for you."

* * *

 

                          

* * *

 

"Pops, can we get dessert?" Michael asked.

It was the day of Michael's birthday and the entire family was sitting together at a restaurant for Michael's birthday dinner. There would be a birthday party that weekend, but Alex always took the boys out to a nicer restaurant than usual for their birthday. It was a way for the family to celebrate amongst themselves.

Nicky and Andre were sitting together on one side of the table while Alex, Michael, and Tom were squeezed into the other side of the booth together. Alex and Nicky were both sitting against the wall while Tom and Andre sat on the edges. Michael was sandwiched between Alex and Tom.

"You didn't finish your vegetables," Alex said. He had his elbow on the table with his chin resting in his palm. He turned away from Nicky so he could look at Michael, letting his palm cover his mouth so Michael wouldn't see his smile. "You really think I'm going to buy you dessert?"

"It's his birthday," Tom said. "You have to buy dessert!"

"Oh do I?" Alex said. "Because I'm pretty sure I only have to buy dessert for his birthday party."

"But you bought us dessert on my birthday," Andre said. "And we all got dessert on Tom's birthday."

"Well, I suppose if I did it for the two of you than I have to do it for Michael too." The boys let out a loud cheer. As they spread the dessert menu out on the table, all three leaning in to look for what they wanted, Alex looked at Nicky. "Do you want anything?"

"I don't think so," Nicky said. Then he turned his attention to the boys, asking, "What are you guys getting?"

"Mike and I are gonna get lava cookies and ice cream," Tom told Nicky. "They're really, really good!"

"Sounds yummy. And what are you getting, Andre?"

"Chocolate cake!" he said. He pointed to the picture on the menu. "It has a cherry on it."

"Cherries and chocolate are a pretty good combination," Alex said.

"Yeah!" Andre offered, "You can have a bite of it when I get it. But only a bite! I don't want you to eat all of it like Papa does when I share with him."

"Hey now," Nicky objected. "I don't eat all of your dessert."

"Yes you do," Andre said.

"Well," Alex said, voice filled with amusement. "I promise that if you're nice enough to share with me, _I_  won't eat all of your dessert. Just a bite or two."

Andre nodded, apparently pleased with this compromise.

"You can have some of ours, Nicky," Tom offered. Michael nodded his agreement.

Nicky smiled at them. "Thank you, boys."

* * *

"All of the hellions laying down?" Alex asked as Nicky stepped into the bedroom.  
  
It was the night of Michael's birthday party, which had doubled as a sleepover for the boys and a few of their friends. They'd been content to let the boys just do their own thing for most of the night, but now that it was past midnight they'd decided it was time to make the boys to bring it down a few notches and lay down. Nicky had lost rock-paper-scissors, so he'd been given the task of going to take care of it.

"Yes," Nicky said. They'd both stayed dressed while waiting for the boys, but Alex had stripped down to his boxers while Nicky was gone. Nicky was reaching for the hem of his shirt so that he could do the same. "I put all arguments about who was sleeping where down with games of rock-paper-scissors and then I put a movie in with enough explosions to keep them interested but that's so boring that they'll all fall asleep between the explosions."

Alex stared at Nicky for a moment, thinking about how horribly genius that was.

Thinking about that, however, got Alex thinking about how much better life was with Nicky there.

Not just because Nicky did things like putting on horrible movies to get an entire living room full of young boys to go to sleep, but because Nicky took all three of their boys to school every other day so that Alex could sleep a little longer and he picked the boys up from school on the days he hadn't dropped them off. Life was better because Nicky helped the boys with homework and played stupid video games with them and only minded how messy the house got when he stepped on one of the legos. Life was better because Nicky helped him cook dinner and convince the boys that eating vegetables wasn't going to kill them. Life was better because Nicky helped him make sure that the boys took their baths without ruining the bathroom floor and read to them when they were tucked into bed and never minded the rare occasion when they ended up with extra bodies in the bed with them.

Life was better because Nicky was part of his family and they were raising Andre, Tom, and Michael together and all of them were happy when Nicky and Andre were here.

"You should move in," Alex said. Nicky had just dropped his shirt on the floor, but now he stared at Alex. "Know you stay here all the time, but move in officially."

"No one has ever reacted quite that strongly when I took my shirt off," Nicky said, sounding a little dumbfounded.

"You do look nice without a shirt," Alex said, "but I'm not asking because of that."

"I know," Nicky said. He was quiet for a moment before he said, "Let me think about it for a little bit, okay? I love you, but-"

"It's okay. I understand," Alex assured, because he did. Moving in with someone was a huge step no matter what kind of relationship you were in, but Nicky had Andre to think about. Sure they were already spending most of their nights together, but Andre and Nicky still had a place that was all theirs if things went badly. "I'll wait for an answer."

* * *

 

                          

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hello everyone! I hope you've all had a good month!
> 
> 2) Originally the second section was different, but I've written a lot of Alex acknowledging that their all a family and not enough of the kids acknowledging it so...
> 
> 3) Only one chapter left!!


	15. Forever Family

                                       

* * *

 

"Pops," Michael said. Alex was sitting at a picnic table in the pavilion that the parents and teachers of the third grade classes had taken over for the last day of school picnic. The kids had all run off to play on the playground equipment and wade around in the lake, so Alex had been checking his business email, but now he looked up to find Michael and Tom running back towards him. Michael threw himself onto the bench next to Alex, bracing his hands against the bench and twisting to peer up at Alex. "Can we give the last of the cupcakes we made to Marianne?"

"I don't mind," Alex said. They'd spent most of the night before making enough cupcakes for Tom and Michael's class as well as Andre's. Alex and Nicky had done most of the mixing and baking, but they'd left the decorating for the boys. Andre had put special decorations on his for one of the girls in his class, but neither Tom or Michael had done the same so Alex was a little surprised by the request. "But why do you want to give them to her?"

"Her birthday is next week," Tom said as he drew up behind Michael. He rested his forearms on Michael's back, leaning forward so he could look up at Alex as well. "And her dad said she's only allowed to invite girls to her birthday party, but she really likes cupcakes so we thought we could give them to her now as a birthday present."

"Alright," Alex agreed. "You can give them to her."

The boys let out loud cheers.

"Thank you, pops!" Michael said. He pushed himself of the bench. Tom moved at the same time, pushing away from Michael so that Michael's head wouldn't slam into his chin. "We're gonna go tell her."

"Okay," Alex agreed. Having seen them jumping around the playground equipment before, Alex shouted after them as they ran off, "And be careful. We're gonna get a real lunch with Nicky and Andre after this and I don't want to have that lunch in the hospital."

"We will!"

Instead of turning back to his phone, Alex watched the boys. They were both trying to make it up to the top of the equipment, but neither of them had taken the stairs. Instead Michael was using the small rock-climbing wall that was attached while Tom was decided to try and go up one of the slides. Both boys were looking at each other as they talked about something. Alex couldn't hear them, but knowing his sons he assumed that they were turning their quest to get to the top into some kind of competition.

He knew that if any of the teachers at the picnic saw them they'd yell at Tom for climbing the slide like he was, but Alex was content to let the boys do as they wanted. Despite his warning for them to be careful, he didn't really think either of the boys would do something that would end up with them getting hurt too badly. They might come back a little dirty and with a few scraps, but he didn't think it would go any further than that.

Besides, it had been a good afternoon so far and Alex didn't want to yell at either of them.

He loved Andre and nowadays he saw Andre as his just as he did Michael and Tom, but sometimes it was nice to spend time alone with Michael and Tom. He felt the same way about spending time alone with Andre. It was good to get to spend some time with any of the boys, not because he didn't love having Nicky there and all of them together but because spending time with the boys was something he liked and sometimes it was nice to be able to focus on them and have fun with them without other distractions. 

* * *

"Do I really have to eat the rest of the broccoli?" Andre asked, frowning as he poked the fork against the green vegetable on his plate.

Even though the last day was spent on picnics, most of the food had been junk food and no parent with a grade schooler was stupid enough to take their child home before they'd run off all the sugar. So after meeting up, Alex and Nicky had taken the boys to a diner near the school so that they could get some real food into them.

"Yes," Alex said. Nicky and Alex were sitting on one side of the booth while Andre, Michael, and Tom were sitting on the other side. All three of the boys had half empty plates of chicken tenders in front of them. "We let you put cheese on it so that you'd eat it."

"Yeah, but I've eaten all of the cheese," Andre whined. "Now it's just gross broccoli."

"You still have to eat it," Nicky said. Andre frowned, continuing to push the vegetable around instead of eating it. "Andre."

"Okaaaay," Andre said. He sighed before stabbing his fork through one of the stalks and bring it to his mouth.

Alex watched for a moment, making sure that Andre actually swallowed, before turning to Nicky. He kicked his foot out gently, catching Nicky's ankle. When Nicky looked over at him, Alex raised an eyebrow in a quiet question. Nicky responded with a small nod.

Looking back at the kids, Alex cleared his throat before saying, "Boys, we've got something to tell you." When he was sure all three boys were paying attention, he explained, "We've decided that all of us are going to live together now."

"Andre and Nicky stay over all the time," Tom said, face scrunching with confusion.

"Yes but now Andre and Nicky are going to be at the house all the time," Alex explained. "They're going to move in so it's going to be their house just like it's our house."

"Oooh." Tom looked over at Michael for a moment before looking back at Alex. "Do we have to share our room with Andre? Because sharing with him sometimes is okay, but our room is pretty crowded. We don't think another bed is going to fit in it."

"No," Alex said, smiling a little bit. It was amusing to think that the boys biggest concern was whether or not they had to share a room. "We're going to turn the guest bedroom into Andre's room."

"Andre," Nicky said. "What do you think? Are you okay with this?"

Andre glanced down at his plate before looking up and asking, "If I say I'm not okay with it, do I still have to eat the broccoli?"

There was a small beat of quiet before Alex burst out in laughter.

"I'm going to take that question as your way of saying that yes, you're okay with it," Nicky said, voice filled with just as much amusement as Alex felt. "So finish eating your vegetables."

* * *

                          

* * *

 

Alex was walking down the hallway, carrying a box of things from Nicky's bedroom that he was meant to be taking to the car, when he heard a chorus of giggling from Andre's room.

The boys were supposed to be packing away Andre's room. Alex and Nicky had both known that asking the three children to pack the room with all of the toys was going to mean they'd need to poke in to direct them away from playing and back to working, but it had seemed like the best way to keep them from running underfoot while they tried to sort out the rest of the house.

With the box occupying his hands, Alex had to reach his leg out to nudge the bedroom door open.

Sure enough when the door was open, Alex found Andre, Michael, and Tom all gathered around a hot wheels track. Alex was actually a little impressed by how off track they had gotten. The track hadn't been set up when they arrived, so the boys had actively taken time away from working on packing Andre's room to work on putting together the rails.

"Boys," Alex said, calling their attention to him. All three of the boys froze, but none of them looked at him. It was as though they thought not looking at him would keep them from getting in trouble. "That doesn't look like packing to me."

The boys all exchanged a look before Tom, who had his hand out stretched to drop one of Andre's cars onto the track, said, "We were just making sure the track still worked because if it's broken then we should throw it out instead of packing it, right?"

"Nice try," Alex said. "But I'm not buying it."

Andre groaned.

Alex had to bite his lip to keep from laughing out loud at how quickly Andre was giving in. He hadn't had to make threats of punishment or even use a chiding tone. Andre was just caving. Given the way Michael and Tom shot Andre dirty looks, he assumed it hadn't missed their attention that Andre was giving in without a fight.

"We were just taking a small break," Andre said.

Alex glanced at the room. It looked as though the boys had gotten at least some work done. They weren't really blowing Alex's expectations away, but it didn't seem like they were completely shirking their jobs either.

"Tell you what," Alex said. "Your papa and I are almost finished with his room. You boys can play until we're finished. But once we're done with that, I'm going to come in here and all four of us are going to pack up together, okay?"

"Okay!" the boys chorused. 

* * *

"Michael, you do not a fifth piece of pizza," Nicky said,

"But I'm still hungry," Michael whined.

"You will absolutely not hungry enough to eat another piece of pizza," Nicky said. Alex had been focused on the TV screen and the movie playing on it, but now he shifted his attention to watch Nicky and Michael. He could just see the two of them through the entry way between the dining room and living room. "You wouldn't finish it."

"I will," Michael objected.

"You won't," Nicky said, barely phased by Michael's whining.

Having spent most of the day moving Nicky and Andre's belongings, most into the house but some to a storage facility until they could figure out what to do with it, the family had happily settled down in front of the TV once night had fallen. Alex had ordered pizza instead of cooking and the boys had picked out some movie from the shelf that they'd been wanting to watch.

Nicky had gotten up a little bit ago, saying that he'd take care of clean up. Alex had tried to object, but Nicky had just waved him off.

Tom and Andre were currently curled up against Alex, both of them completely captured by the movie, but Michael had wandered into the kitchen with his plate.

"But I'll make you a deal," Nicky said. Michael made a soft, interested sound. "You go sit down and watch the movie. If your still hungry when it's over, I'll make you an ice cream sundae to eat before you have to sleep."

"Can I share it with Tom?"

"If Tom wants some."

"Okay," Michael agreed. Alex saw him move and set his plate in the sink. "Thank you, Nicky!"

"I don't know why you're thanking me since I haven't made the sundae for you yet," Nicky said, amusement in his voice. He reached out, ruffling Michael's hair and giving him a light shove. "Now head over there and sit down."

"Okaaay."

Alex settled back down against the couch, focusing back on the movie on the screen.

It wasn't a particularly interesting movie, but it was easy to get comfortable when he had two of his boys curled up against him, the third on his way back, and the knowledge that Nicky was nearby.

* * *

 

                          

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap folks! Thank you so much to everyone who supported this fic from the beginning, but also to everyone who joined along the way - whether that was during chapter two or even yesterday. Without everyone's support I wouldn't have had the motivation to finish this fic. So thank you all so much!


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